JackCentral

Hello, Lumberjack readers. This week’s question comes from someone who is either confused about the spelling of “Paddy” or is under the impression this column is written by George Harrison’s ex-wife:
Q: Pattie, how many people do you have to sleep with in order to be considered a “slut?”
Assuming we’re using the general “you” and this question is not referring to when Paddy himself was first considered a slut, then we must start by making an important point. Slut is not a strictly defined term, nor does it correlate to a mathematical equation, such as a+b=slut.
Slut is a purely subjective term. It’s used to describe someone based upon perception of that person. In fact, the term slut is more influenced by how many people you are thought to have slept with than how many people you actually “know” carnally.
There’s also a double standard to consider. Most often it is women who are labeled “sluts,” where as equally promiscuous men are considered “players,” or, more often, “playaz.” This point was rather neatly made in the 1999 female-bonding film Girl, Interrupted.
Okay, so we know sluttiness isn’t dependent on exact facts, but it’s not really based on numbers to begin with. While anything in the triple digits is likely to be considered at the very least “sluttish,” for most people, it has more to do with how well you know your sex partners and why you had sex with them, than how many of them there are.
Based on nothing more scientific than our own learned approximations, we would estimate that most people begin to be considered slutty after having sex with at most 20 people. While this may not be a modest number, it’s still not ungodly outrageous either. There are probably quite a few people who have ranked up the same tally and aren’t considered sluts, simply because they have had serious relationships with the 20 people they’ve had sex with. A relationship goes a long way to dispel perceived sluttiness, while sleeping with random people you meet at Collin’s can only add fuel to the fire.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t sleep with random Collin’s patrons. If that makes you happy, then by all means, go ahead. It’s how you consider yourself that’s important. If you’re okay being seen as a slut and you’re okay considering yourself a slut, then that’s all that matters.
If, on the other hand, you don’t consider yourself a slut and don’t care what other people think, that works just fine too. If you’re worried about people thinking you’re a slut, then there’s not a lot we can tell you, except maybe think about what it is about being a slut that is so problematic in our society. Or, as Margaret Cho said, “What about slut pride?”
Whatever you do, always use protection, ‘cause STIs are unpleasant, slut or not.
As always, send your questions about sluts, STIs or the films of Angelina Jolie to thenakedtruth@jackcentral.com.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.