www.stetsonreporter.com
Thursday, October 29, 2009
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by Heather Valenti
You've asked a great question when ev-.
ery person that you ask gives you a startled
expression and says: "I'm sorry... what?"
With the exception of a very few, this was
the natural reaction given by Stetson students when asked: "What do you consider
to be a slut or a whore?"
144 students answered the question: 71
males and 73 females. The results turned
out to be a bit shocking. Not so surprising
was the fact that 90 students wanted to be
left anonymous after giving their answers.
Despite the initial startled reactions, almost every person interviewed gave the
question a great deal of thought before answering and no one was rude in any way
(though admittedly,- there was some giggling from a few students at first). Most of
those who did not wish to answer generally
replied politely with one of the following
answers: "I'd rather not." "I think I'll put
my foot in my mouth for this one, sorry."
Or, "Uh, I know I'm going to get in trouble
if I answer, this."
We all hear it, the whispers (sometimes
not so quietly), the rumors and backward
glances when speaking of fellow classmates that are believed to deserve the title
slut i or whore. But as many of the interviewees put it, it's hard to define.
"I think it's something that society as
a whole defines," Nels Frostenson said
thoughtfully. Something that struck me as
strange was the fact that a very low num
ber of students mentioned clothing at all.
In fact the first thing out of the mouths of
19 students who were asked immediately
said: "Somebody who sleeps around."
That's quite a lot of people when you consider that none of them talked to each other
before questioning. While the majority of
those interviewed said the same thing, only
with varying degrees &i detail, 14 students
made the distinction that to be a shit or a
whore that the factor was not simply having sex, but having sex with "numerous,"
"multiple"'or "a lot" of people.! ;
Okay, so a slut or whore is someone
who has a lot of sex, we all know that, but
what is surprising are the words most often
used with the idea. Eight described a slut
or whore as "promiscuous," while others
deemed it as not just having sex, but having sex with "random" strangers that they
had never met before.
"I have sex, but I don't have sex with
nasty, dirty, gross random strangers" one
anonymous female student said. Another
anonymous female commented, "People
have sex, couples have sex, go have fun. I
don't care, but with random people? That's
just slutty." A large number of people
agreed that it is "not necessarily the number of times having sex, but the number of
people," as Iain Ray said.
Alright, so a whore or slut is, as one anonymous male student summed up: someone
who has "multiple anonymous sexual en-
PSease See "Sluts** P. 3
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Review; "Where
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