Chrissy Teigen, You Are Ignorant and Know Nothing About 'Sluts'

Model Chrissy Teigen took to Twitter yesterday, to call someone a whore and was promptly accused by her followers of slut-shaming. She responded with a full-on, crazy-ass ignorant rant for hours that began with: “uh 1, i’m too old to know the term ‘slut shaming’ and 2, what the fuck is wrong with slut shaming.” Uh 1, she’s only 27. And 2, we’re about to tell you what exactly is fucking wrong with slut shaming.

It all started when Chrissy tweeted about Teen Mom/Backdoor Teen Mom star Farrah Abraham, calling her a whore.

Here’s the thing: there are plenty of things that a person can call Farrah that are both objectively true observations and sufficiently insulting, like that she’s a “liar” or “delusional bitch” or “fucked-up sad person.” That girl has plenty to be ashamed about. Hell, you could even call her a fame whore. But plain whore? That’s problematic. But Teigen doesn’t see it that way, which is equally problematic.

OK, well, lemme enumerate for you what the fuck is wrong with slut-shaming:

1.) There is no cognitive content for the term “slut,” meaning that there is no one, true meaning. Like, there isn’t a set number of men that a woman has to sleep with in order to qualify for the description. It could be one guy—it could even be no guys. There are cases that virgins have been called sluts because they “acted slutty.” You see, the notion is completely subjective. Everybody perceives sluttiness and whorey-ness differently. Some people think that women who dress a certain way—like revealing too much skin—or inspire certain kinds of thoughts in men are sluts. By their definition, you, my dear, are a big ol’ slut.

2.) It is an exercise in futility for you to view “slut” as a negative term, because, as stated in item 1, there is no universal, literal meaning of it. It is instead based on implicit gender biases about how women are supposed to behave. The kicker, though, is that because these biases are as varied as the people who subscribe to them, it doesn’t actually matter what you do or don’t do. As a woman, someone could always come up with a reason to call you a slut or a whore. And trying to delineate yourself from “girls like that” only endorses the whole ridiculous concept of “slut” being a slight in the first place, which only puts you more at risk of being the next target. When you do that shit, we all lose. It’s like a snake eating its own tail.

3.) When it comes to associating shame with a woman’s sexual behavior—whether it’s in a porno or her dorm room, it doesn’t matter—what you’re essentially saying is that sex is shameful for women and they should be embarrassed by it. The result of publicly shaming one woman’s sexual behavior is that other women will be scared of being open and honest about their own sexuality, lest they be mocked for it. It’s what makes young women shy away from seeing a gynecologist, or buying condoms, or buying the morning after pill. It enables women to disregard their sexual health, thus shaming is unhealthy.

4.) Slut-shaming definitely qualifies as bullying. Teenage girls who get slut-shamed in high school are committing suicide, unable to handle the horrendous, unrelenting harassment, and being told that they are “less than.” Amanda Knox spent four years in prison for a murder that she didn’t commit simply because some prosecutors in an Italian town and a few tabloid journalists painted a giant scarlet letter on her chest, using her sexual history and no actual physical evidence, in a trial to convict her. Slut-shaming is a real thing with real consequences.

5.) Dude, super whores are OK. (So are mediocre ones.) And we aren’t defending everyone with a vagina. Case in point: your comments here are indefensible.

But you clearly don’t get it. And it’s doubtful you ever will. I mean, we’re talking about a person here who models swimsuits for a living but hasn’t ever bothered to learn to swim—and is totally OK with that!