When a woman wears clothes that are revealing, she is instantly treated with disrespect. The idea of a woman embracing her body is unacceptable because men feel that they own women’s bodies and that they can dictate when a woman shows hers off. If that same woman decides to post a picture of herself almost naked, she has to deal with an immense amount of people calling her a slut and saying that she has no morals. However, when a man posts a photo of himself almost naked, he is praised for his confidence. This double standard stems from the fact that men are taught to be sensual and women are taught to be virginal.

From the moment a woman hits puberty and on, she is constantly told the importance of maintaining her purity by not engaging in any activity that could be considered suggestive. Society has misconstrued a woman’s reasoning behind showing skin to being an act solely meant to draw the attention of men when in reality, they are only doing it for themselves. Many women feel empowered when they wear a skimpy outfit and just because they are wearing fewer clothes, it does not mean that they are inviting a man to ogle at their body and have sex with them. That mentality is extremely dangerous because it fuels rape culture.

The excuse that many rapists use is that a woman was “asking for it” because they were wearing revealing clothes. Women that get labeled as sluts are never seen as victims if they are raped because people decide that they are no longer worthy of any compassion. They are seen as objects that have been tainted because their body was no longer kept a mystery. The sluts are blamed for their own assaults when the men should be receiving the blame instead since they decided to have sex with someone without consent.

Even those men’s perversions are more readily accepted in our society than a woman who enjoys wearing tight clothing because women are expected to be chaste. Many people believe that only a modest woman deserves to be treated as a human being, so when a woman that was showing skin gets raped, she deserves it for being a person of poor character.

Society assumes that women that are labeled as sluts must be immoral. A slut being generous or kind never crosses anyone’s minds because they are allegedly unethical, so they must be demonized. A slut is seen as the lowest of the low and is made an example of so that other women know how not to behave.

Sluts are also seen as unintelligent because surely if a woman feels beautiful when she exposes her body it must be because she has nothing else to offer the world. When those women try to voice any opinions they have or attempt to have thought-provoking conversations, they are immediately silenced because they could not possibly have anything compelling to say since they do not have the decency to cover up.

A woman’s sexuality is a taboo topic to discuss and when women openly talk about the number of sexual partners they have had, they are heavily scrutinized. It is considered something shameful to speak of because a woman is never supposed to insinuate that she has ever done anything sexual.

Men are told to boast about their sexual experiences with women and they are encouraged to have sex with as many women as possible. It makes the men seem strong and powerful, but it makes the women seem pathetic and submissive. Women are meant to stay as the conquests that men take over. A woman being sexually dominant is a frightening thought since women have been used as sexual objects that can be later disposed of since the beginning of time.

If a woman has had sex with a large number of men, it does not mean that she deserves any less respect than a woman who is a virgin. Each person should be able to decide what they do with their body, and that decision is nobody else's business. Slut shaming is society’s attempt at forcing women back into their place as the sexual servants for men.

A man is never labeled a slut if he has sex with many women because it only makes him seem more masculine. The amount of respect that a man’s peers have for him increases exponentially with each woman he has sex with, but the opposite is true for women. A woman that dresses “slutty” can be a fully functional and well rounded human being just like anyone else. The clothes that she chooses to wear do not dictate the type of person she is. We must learn to stop policing women’s bodies and allow them to express themselves however they see fit.