Slut Narratives in Popular Culture

Slut Narratives in Popular Culture explores representations of slut shaming and the term "slut" in U.S. popular media, 2000-2020. It argues that cultural narratives of intersectional gender identities are gradually but unevenly shifting to become more progressive and sex positive. Moving beyond prior research on slut shaming, which exposes problematic conflations between women's morality and a sexual purity associated with White economic privilege, this book examines how narratives that perpetuate slut shaming are both contested and reinscribed through stories we circulate. It emphasizes effects of twenty-first century developments in digital communication and entertainment. The rapid evolution of genres combined with increased access to the consumption and production of texts stimulates more diverse storytelling. The book's analyses demonstrate twenty-first-century changes in how slut shaming is depicted and understood while encouraging consumers and producers of pop culture to attend to cultural narratives as they reify or challenge the subordination of vulnerable populations. Aimed primarily at an academic audience, this book will also engage general readers interested in intersectional feminism, pop culture, new media, digital technologies, and sociolinguistic change. Readers will become more adept at deconstructing assumptions embedded in popular media, especially narratives informing slut shaming.

Laurie McMillan, Ph.D., serves as dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, where she works to apply the equity frameworks she studies to higher education leadership. She has published journal articles and book chapters on feminist rhetoric and on writing pedagogy, as well as a first-year composition rhetoric-reader Focus on Writing: What College Students Want to Know.

Introduction: Slut Narratives, Popular Culture, and Social Change Section I: Foundations for Thinking about Slut Shaming Chapter 1: Defining "Slut" from the OED to the Urban Dictionary Chapter 2: Reclaiming and Prohibiting "Slut": Riot Grrrls, SlutWalk, Social Media, and Slutty Food Section II: Critiques of Slut Shaming for Teens Chapter 3: Limited Critiques of Slut Shaming in Teen Movie Comedies: Mean Girls, Easy A, and To All the Boys I've Loved Before Chapter 4: Slut Shaming Critiques in Streamed Dramatic Teen Series: Stranger Things, Euphoria, and 13 Reasons Why Chapter 5: Talking about Slut Shaming on YouTube: Jenna Marbles and Laci Green Section III: Complicating Slut Shaming for Adults Chapter 6: Slut Shaming and Polyamory: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy and Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 7: Slut Shaming, Respectability, and Metanarrative in a Latine Dramedy Series: Jane the Virgin Chapter 8: Comedic Challenges to Slut Shaming: Stand-Up Comedy Specials and Guys We F*cked: The Anti-Slut Shaming Podcast Chapter 9: (Challenging) Slut Shaming in Traditional Media, New Media, and Viral Politics: Sandra Fluke and Monica Lewinsky