A man can be a slut, too. Believe me, I tried.

If women are equal, and men living in societies with free speech is not harmful to humanity, I fail to see a problem. Does it make you question your life choices? Well, that's not anybody else's fault, is it? :chin:

I vote for this being a Lounge topic, by the way.

Let Copernicus Post

I feel the same about the bad names for women, and racist words; they all dehumanize people and maybe that is not okay. — Athena

Names are just words, it is the use they are given that is offensive.
It is funny to see how much of a difference there is between groups using the same words. A bunch of girls running around the bars at nights quite often use the term "slut" affectionately to show that they care about each other.
Groups of black people are often heard calling each other "niggers" and the whites "honkies"or 'whities". Only the ones used about the whites are used offensively by them. Neither group can use these words to members of the other group without it being racist. Weird.

The strange thing about that is that I have never heard anywhere white people calling each other "honkies" or 'whities". Maybe it is because there are plenty of other offensive names to use without them.

That is a good observation. In some forums, the guys can talk terribly to each other, and when I objected, I was informed that the guys were friends and no harm was done. What you said is true, but there is a social cost to those negative names. However, humor is a funny thing. It can make something bad good. Maybe working on our sense of humor is the best way to deal with human problems.

Last Tuesday, my Scrabble group checked the official Scrabble position on using the word "slut" and to my delight, it is no longer accepted. However, Scrabble groups can agree to use offensive words if everyone agrees to do so. The group I play with agrees, if the word is going to get a high score, we can use it. However, at a Scrabble tournament, I don't think the words would be accepted.

The quality of our relationship is very important to our decisions. I would not use racially offensive or gender offensive words if there were someone in the room who could be offended.