Skanks & sluts

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:18 PM -0800 2/20/03, Indigo Som wrote:
>I have a very definite sense that "slut" moved from female-only
>(pre90s) to female + gay male (90s) to its current status (beginning
>late 90s), which I think is not *quite* gender neutral. When you say
>it to straight men it retains a little bit of irony or self-conscious
>coolness derived from some mixture of: genderbending, being
>in-the-know about gay culture, &/or being an equal-opportunity
>epithet user.
>
>Also "slut" has lost almost all of its negativity. When I was in high
>school it was a terrible insult to call someone a slut. Now you can
>call your friends sluts & they just smile & shrug.

This seems right, i.e. consistent with my intuitions, and better put
that I would have managed to.  (I'm referring mostly to the semantic
shifts described in the former of these two paragraphs; I'm too old
to try calling my friends sluts, even if I could be sure they really
would just smile and shrug.)  Unfortunately, I can't think about
sluts any more; too many E's to turn upside down.

larry