I am Not a Chick

Exhibit A: Short skirt does not qualify her as a slut or ho.

There are some guys at my work who are in the habit of referring to women as either "chicks", or "sluts". Sometimes they change it up and the women are "bitches" or "ho's".

Needless to say, this bothers me. I mean, it's not incessant, and they don't call me those things. But for whatever reason, they will not call a female, "woman" or "girl". (I prefer girl, if you're under...30. And woman if you're over 30. I guess. I don't really know why.)

So, to cut back on the use of these terms, whenever someone says, in reference to a photo of a girl dressed scantily or whatever, "look at the slut", I will say, "how do we know she's a slut? We don't know that. There is no way to tell that, just based on her photo. We don't know who she sleeps with or what she's like."  And after a few earfuls of that a day, it has seemed to curb the problem significantly.

In general, I'm not crazy about labels anyway. But I'll allow them the occasional "ho" comment if they can back it up with some evidence that the girl has earned the title. If she's sleeping around with a bunch of different guys behind her husband's back...then yes. She has earned that one, I'm not about to defend her.

You see what I'm saying?

In this case, it would not be inappropriate to say "look at those cute chicks!"

I just think the derogatory terms for women are thrown around so easily without a thought. It's not fair. There's not exactly a male equivalent of the term "slut".

It's all just very degrading. And frustrating as a woman. I guess "chick" isn't exactly degrading, but it does signify a certain lack of respect. Come on, if your boss is a woman, you're not going to go around calling her a chick.

I'm a girl, a female, a woman, a human, a person, a lass...take your pick, but I am not a chick.