The Slut List

They create discord and then vanish. Like the Salem Witch Trials, any evidence (real or imagined) is sufficient. Dislike someone? Put them on. Want to ostracize someone? Stick 'em on too. A list of names to blacken, a judgement passed. All some women have are their good names- yet a select few choose to fling mud. 

Since I started high school, there were always mutterings of them, whispers that lurked the corridors and hid in scraps of paper passed along a row. They were posted on Facebook and sent over Mxit or BBM. In the same way disease spreads, each person branded as an offender tried to isolate themselves. Fearing the reputation that had been smeared onto their names would stick. Fearing the rumors would always lurk over their lives.

Every few months I see a scandal unfold on my newsfeed: a catfish profile that gained the trust of people or a fight that ensues because of suspicions and rumours. People depressed because the drama caused has put a strain on their lives. And then I see a list. 

The Slut List has been a notoriously childish, insensitive and destructive trend. I've never been on one and even if I had been, it would hold less water than a sieve. But I still feel for those girls who are put on them, again and again. Until they feel numb. Since when was it okay to "decide" that there needs to be a list put out, detailing the names and "offences" of people you vaguely know? The truth never matters, it is bent to suit the author. 

The creators are cowards, usually hiding behind a farce of "Someone sent this to me, told me to share" or by creating catfish profiles on social media in order to escape the backlash. They are bitter, lonely, cruel and immature. They are hungry for a sense of power or a sense of belonging. Do they care if their victims are deeply affected by it? They sit behind a computer and presume to know the girls they write about. Do they feel remorse?

Nope. 

The targets are usually:

- enemies

- popular people who are seen to be "too friendly"

- a specific type deemed to be "slutty"

  

And the motivation varies from resentment to wanting to create a stir.All thats left to do afterwards is type out all the names that fit your requirements and press "Send". 

Some of those lists follow girls (and recently many boys)around for many years.Nothing is easier to ruin than a reputation. Your family finds out? Some of them assume that where there is smoke, there must be a fire. Speaking to some of the girls who have featured on Slut Lists makes you realise how deep the pain can go. Some feel victimised because an impression of promiscuity and depravity is created by this list. Do you know what a label feels like?

Suffocating and like a prison to some. It is a violation that is pinned to you, a scarlet letter that brands you. 

As much as I hate to say it- The Indian community tends to have these lists circulating.  Not exclusively but by far most popularly. A witch-hunt to shame the girls who do not fit into an "Ideal". Since when have we become judge and jury? Why this need to publish and spread hate and malicious petty behavior? 

It is unrealistic to expect these lists to stop. But it is very realistic to stop giving them power to have any influence. Click report, ignore them, don't forward them. Give them no power and let them starve of the attention they so desperately crave. 

Call me a slut? Sure. I will hold my head up high and let you try to belittle my womanhood. Keep trying. Take your best shot actually. Those words do not define any of us. They are not chains that bind my wrists. We create our own identity. 

slut. whore. bitch. slag. loose. 

They are just words. And your womanhood is so much more than a few letters grouped together.