"whore"

He is a media whore.

She is a corporate whore.

They are all publicity whores.

We've all heard it. Many of us have said it. Some may ask, what is the problem?

Language is used with the understanding that we share the meanings of words. So don't even start with offering defensive rebuttals here based on atypical connotations/definitions of the word "whore" used in this way. We all know what this use of the word means -- someone who "sells out" for personal advantage.

But we also all know that -- for 99% of us -- the image that comes to mind is that of a woman who exchanges sex for money. We all know that the term is not used to call in empathetic support for the person at whom the word is aimed as an epithet. It means you are morally bankrupt.

Here is the problem, in addition to the fact that this term associates moral bankruptcy with women: In our patriarchal history, women have been forced, by economic coercion and direct violence, to exchange sex for money and other goods by MEN.. whereupon MEN, who have largely controlled public discourse as a prerogative of male hegemony, have projected their own moral bankruptcy onto mostly powerless women who have been brutally exploited by those same MEN. Even in the Apocalypse of John (Revelation), the worst of the powers is described as "the whore of Babylon."

So when we use "whore" as an epithet, we are reinforcing an historical reference to moral bankruptcy that calls to mind (in 99% of us) a WOMAN who is seen as a calculating degenerate, responsible for her own situation . . . which conceals the reality of MEN who exploit women for sex, then hold them in contempt. It absolves the johns and pimps, in other words, and conceals the real conditions of the overwhelming majority of women who are prostituted.

In other words, "whore" as an epithet is sexist all the way down.

Let me give an analogy. There is a common saying among some white men (and a few white women), to express irritation at being asked to do someone else's work for them or fetch and serve for them. "I'm not your nigger!"

We immediately understand, I hope, that this is unacceptable, because it is racist.

Black people, with very few exceptions, did not serve white people because they wanted to. Prostituted women, with very few exceptions, do not exchange sex for money because they want to. We seem to have learned -- most of us -- that the racial example is verboten; but we seem to be lagging on the sex front.

If this use of "whore" were indeterminate or widely contested, it would not be used as it is. Again, language is used with the understanding that we share the meanings of words. This cultural understanding is what is mobilized, intentionally, by its users.

Eighty-five percent of surveyed prostituted women (I use the passive voice, because most of these women -- and they are mostly women -- are [90% surveyed] bossed by male pimps and paid for by male johns) were sexually abused as children, most by family members. Eighty percent report having been raped as teens and adults. As prostituted women, they have been raped between eight and ten times a year; though, given the coercive circumstances of most prostitution, one might call all sold-sex "rape." I certainly would. Seventy-eight percent of one surveyed group had rapes on the job an average of 16 times a year. Seventy-two percent were beaten up in the course of being prostituted.  Ninety percent reported they would leave prostitution if they could. Most show clear signs of PTSD. They are all at far higher risk of contracting STDs. Fifty-five percent were addicted to drugs before they were prostituted; and thirty percent became addicted in the course of being prostituted. It is estimated that 40 million women are thus exploited, many living in conditions of virtual slavery. The murder rate in the US is 6.2 per 100,000; for prostituted women it is 204 for every 100,000. Sex trafficking is a $58 billion a year industry, with men as the main beneficiaries. One in ten men has paid for sex with a prostituted woman. The average female prostitute begins "working" as a prostituted woman at age 16 (for boys, it is 14).

And do you know what male-hegemonic society calls these women who are victimized as sexual commodities? Whore.

So when we say, "He is a media whore." "She is a corporate whore." "They are all publicity whores." . . . we are saying that person is bad because s/he is the same as a prostituted woman, simultaneously victim-blaming and feminizing evil.

The proper epithet for someone who is thoroughly morally degraded might better be "pimp," but that has become a term of respect. Do we see the problem yet?

Rant complete.