Slut Stigma In Good Girls
Social Psychology Quarterly
2014, Vol. 77(2) 100–122
Ó American Sociological Association 2014
DOI: 10.1177/0190272514521220 http://spq.sagepub.com ‘‘Good Girls’’: Gender,
Social Class, and Slut
Discourse on Campus
Elizabeth A. Armstrong1, Laura T. Hamilton2,
Elizabeth M. Armstrong1, and J. Lotus Seeley1
Abstract
Women’s participation in slut shaming is often viewed as internalized oppression: they apply disadvantageous sexual double standards established by men. This perspective grants women little agency and neglects their simultaneous location in other social structures. In this article we synthesize insights from social psychology, gender, and culture to argue that undergraduate women use slut stigma to draw boundaries around status groups …show more content…
Thus, an explanation that ends with women’s attempts to evade slut stigma by deflecting it onto other women is unsatisfying.
We employ a discursive approach to explain how individual efforts to deflect stigma reaffirm its salience for all women.
Gender Performance and the
Circulation of Stigma
The ‘‘doing gender’’ tradition suggests that slut stigma regulates the gender presentations of all girls and women (Eder et al. 1995; Tanenbaum 1999). The emphasis is on how women are sanctioned for failing to perform femininity acceptably
(West and Zimmerman 1987). This suggests that slut stigma is more about regulating public gender performance than regulating private sexual practices.
Taking this approach further, Pascoe
(2007) draws on Foucault (1978) and Butler (1990) to analyze the circulation of the fag epithet among adolescent boys. She shows that the ubiquitous threat of being labeled regulates performances by all boys, ensuring conformity with hegemonic masculinity. Boys jockey for rank in peer hierarchies by lobbing the fag label at each other in a game of ‘‘hot potato.’’ Fag is not, as Pascoe (2007:54) notes, ‘‘a static identity attached to a particular (homosexual) boy’’ but rather
2014, Vol. 77(2) 100–122
Ó American Sociological Association 2014
DOI: 10.1177/0190272514521220 http://spq.sagepub.com ‘‘Good Girls’’: Gender,
Social Class, and Slut
Discourse on Campus
Elizabeth A. Armstrong1, Laura T. Hamilton2,
Elizabeth M. Armstrong1, and J. Lotus Seeley1
Abstract
Women’s participation in slut shaming is often viewed as internalized oppression: they apply disadvantageous sexual double standards established by men. This perspective grants women little agency and neglects their simultaneous location in other social structures. In this article we synthesize insights from social psychology, gender, and culture to argue that undergraduate women use slut stigma to draw boundaries around status groups …show more content…
Thus, an explanation that ends with women’s attempts to evade slut stigma by deflecting it onto other women is unsatisfying.
We employ a discursive approach to explain how individual efforts to deflect stigma reaffirm its salience for all women.
Gender Performance and the
Circulation of Stigma
The ‘‘doing gender’’ tradition suggests that slut stigma regulates the gender presentations of all girls and women (Eder et al. 1995; Tanenbaum 1999). The emphasis is on how women are sanctioned for failing to perform femininity acceptably
(West and Zimmerman 1987). This suggests that slut stigma is more about regulating public gender performance than regulating private sexual practices.
Taking this approach further, Pascoe
(2007) draws on Foucault (1978) and Butler (1990) to analyze the circulation of the fag epithet among adolescent boys. She shows that the ubiquitous threat of being labeled regulates performances by all boys, ensuring conformity with hegemonic masculinity. Boys jockey for rank in peer hierarchies by lobbing the fag label at each other in a game of ‘‘hot potato.’’ Fag is not, as Pascoe (2007:54) notes, ‘‘a static identity attached to a particular (homosexual) boy’’ but rather