In comparison to the US, where women with highly active sex lives, who have lots of non-exclusive sexual encounters, are sometimes considered (often quite unfairly) to be somewhat “slutty”- Are women with lots of brief, serial sexual partners looked askance at in England, Canada or Australian / New Zealand, or do they have a different persepective on women who have lots of one night stands?
I doubt there’s much difference between the UK and US in this respect. (Obviously, I assume we are discounting bible-belt Hicksville as being very difference in too many ways for a meaningful comparison 
) There’s certainly still a disparity between the way men and women’s promiscuity is viewed, although it is perhaps gradually but surely disappearing. Within their social grouping, there may not be any particular scorn on women who behave in this way, but there certainly is in the wider scheme of things. (Anecdotally, I’ve heard plenty of middle-aged people complain about the young women out on a Friday night ‘obviously’ after just one thing - they never complain about the roaming packs of men in the same way.)
why, what have you heard about me?
Hmm…you know, if you can get a reputation for being a slut in America, the UK, Canada and Australia that would be something. Bonus points for being a slut in New Zeland.
Speaking for myself I’ve only gotten as far as the first three. Anyone from the Southern Hemisphere want to help me out?
Anyway, to the OP, I don’t think there’s a signifigent difference. To the best of my knowledge. As a slut. I think the major difference is, as Gorilla said, is the absence of the “bible belt” and all that intails. Other than that I think the attitude is pretty much the same…including a certain amount of double standard.
But the double standard wasn’t fabricated out of nothing. There is a biological corollary to the “women are sluts, men are studs” paradigm.
I’m all for getting rid of the slut epithet, but let’s be honest about it. Men are more sexually driven than women. Before you jump on me, my reasons for this belief are that men masturbate more than women, and men understand how to reach climax during sex better than women do.
Also, underage men who were taken advantage of by older women report far fewer negative effects (and feelings) about their encounters than underage women who were taken advantage of by older men.
Women feel more guilt about sex outside of committed relationships, but this one is likely more (but not entirely) about societal conditioning than natural instinct. From the sounds of things, the younger generation may be taking strides to free themselves from this burden.
If there were really no justification for the double standard, I would expect just as many men to get hit on by women just as frequently as women get hit on by men. I’m pretty sure this is still not the case, but would gladly be proven wrong.
Also, I believe the slut label is typically applied to women by other women, not men. Certainly in the negative sense.
I think that depends on your social group.
With the folks I hang with, promiscuity in either sex is generally derided by both sexes. This is complicated by a different sort of contempt being reserved for usually discriminating people who hook up with sluts.
There are degrees, of course. Casual hook-ups with folks from outside the social group usually get a pass. Hey, they might lead somewhere.
Catting around closer to home gets the scorn. I can think of people of both genders who have actually been shunned for indiscreetly screwing anyone who’d go there, continually creating awkwardness or outright hostility between friends and coworkers.
That’s a fair distinction, Larry.
No difference. The kind of girl that gets buried in a Y shaped coffin gets called a slut here (UK) too (put the phrase “kimberley quinn” into google to give you an idea - she’s not a porno actress, but the publisher of the Spectator).
However the deal with men changes with age. When I was in my early 20s I thought the chaps who were shagging a different bird every night were the mutts-nuts. Now I would consider that sort of behaviour quite sad, as it shows a problem maintaining a mature realtionship with the opposite sex.
Then why isn’t the sexual social stigma directed towards men? If women have naturally puny sex drives and men have naturally vigorous ones, what is the advantage of crushing the former while encouraging the latter?
Any historians or anthropologists know about how the perception of male and female sex drives is amongst matriarchal societies? Is it the same? Different? More equal?
I might make this into a GQ thread.
I don’t think women ‘cheat’ as easely as men. When in a steady relationship a woman often has enough sex to prevent her from looking farther. [hey, all imho]
‘Free’ women might have just as many sexual partners as men do.
Women don’t tend to brag about it, though.
The last group, woman not in a relationship, having different sexual encounters [not on the same day 
] aren’t seen as sluts here. Just women enjoying life.
How would ‘slut’ be defined there, then? Someone who cheats on a sexual partner frequently?
Yes. No cheating on a steady [boy]friend.
What’s your defenition of a slut? And what’s the male equivvalent of it?
equivalent, even.
From British Columbia, Canada
When you get to be my age, 54, no one I know in real life is willing to bother to share how they feel about sexually promiscuous women. In fact I’m beginning to believe female promiscuity is a myth !
I haven’t read Playboy or Penthouse in years, and I haven’t been in a locker room with the younger guys talking about girls but if I’m confident that if there is one result from the sexual revolution of the late 60’s and 70’s, its that girls think nothing is extrordinary about having pre-marital sex or shacking up. With one man that is. Drastically cuts down the odds of fatal STDs don’t you think?
That sort of sums up where I’m coming from.
Just the other day I over heard my 13 year old say to another on the telephone “Oh she’s such a slut !”. She didn’t say it in a nice way. And her mom and I have probably never uttered that word till long before she was born. But I do rembember that lots of girls I knew in my youth were referred to as sluts at one time or another and it didn’t always mean that she was promiscous.
The way I have heard it used in American English, depending on the situation it has included any, all, or some combination of:
- promiscuous
- undiscriminating
- “easy”
- uncaring about partners emotions
- f***ing your way to the top or otherwise using it as a commodity
- scorekeeping (you do people just to prove you can)
…with no distinction as to whether she’s cheating on a steady companion or not.
And I have heard males of similar character referred to as “male sluts”. OTOH of course among themselves they proclaim themselves to be “studs”. :rolleyes:
And very often, in the case of the women, the character judgement is made a priori, with very incomplete information, and then people start looking for things that will confirm it.
I contend that it is women who perpetuate the slut stereotype far more than men do. As a man, I have no idea why women do this. Perhaps I should be asking you?
Conversely, as a male that prefers interaction with women, I’ve noticed that men throw the term around a lot more and apply it almost exclusively to the opposite sex.
IMHO, the term “slut” – whether used by/applied to a male or a female – is nothing more than one person’s way of expressing their discomfort with another person’s behaviour (even though said behaviour has nothing to do with the person doing the expressing). It’s just like any other derogatory term, in that it arises from a combination of moral superiority, fear, insecurity, and/or ignorance.
I think that when (straight) women use it to talk about other (straight) women, they are just being judgemental and bitchy. The “slut’s” behaviour doesn’t match their definition of acceptable (or they see her as a threat), so in their insecurity and inability to live and let live they feel compelled to namecall.
When (straight) men use it to describe (straight) women, I think that there is much of the same judgemental/insecure stuff going on, but I’ve also noticed something additional: this is purely anecdotal, but I’ve noticed that men are more inclined to describe a woman as a slut if they are interested in sleeping with her (if they don’t find her at all attractive, they couldn’t care less how many men she’s slept with). I think this may play into some need of theirs to “get” a woman: if they sleep with her, but she’s had a lot of other partners, they don’t get to count her as a conquest (or something). They feel like she would have slept with anyone.
I also feel like my theories might go a little way toward explaining why you hear that term thrown around less frequently as people get older: they get more mature, and comfortable with both their own sexuality and that of others, so they don’t feel the need to namecall as much.
All of the above is just a series of great big WAGs, but it’s fun to speculate. 
In my group of friends, one night stands (and sometimes even infidelity) are just part of the scene - we don’t act as though they’re a reflection on our character. So, no, we don’t brand our peers as “sluts” if they hook up with lots of partners.
Among my friends, what makes you a “slut” is if you’re using your sexuality as currency - coasting by on looks and nubility, rather than using your brain. Pandering to male fantasies when they’re not your own falls under that too - like dressing a certain way because you think “it’s what boys like”, not because it’s an expression of what you really feel like inside.