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On The Bookshelf

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Two new books dissect what's behind cultural labeling.

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7/9

1999

94 Detroit Jewish News

Casanova, but she is a Jezebel. While
he is admired for his sexual prowess;
Do you remember her?
she is condemned.
She was the school slut. You whis-
In this comprehensive study,
pered behind her back, stared at her,
Tanenbaum identifies four situations that
maybe even laughed when someone
often place innocent girls into the "slut"
made a catty remark about how she
category during their teenage years.
looked or what she wore.
Appearance, she writes, is one fac-
Leora Tanenbaum, 29, remembers
tor. Girls who are overweight, who
her very well because she was the des-
develop early or dress differently,
ignated school slut during most of her
either as a sign of individuality or
high school years at a girls yeshiva in-
lack of money, are often stigmatized.
Manhattan.
Girls from a different ethnic back-
It was years before she outgrew the
ground; girls who are perceived as too
pain of that experience, and once she
popular or pretty, and, most
learned she was not alone, it became a
poignantly, girls who are molested or
mission to expose why girls acquire this
raped also are at risk.
reputation and how it affects their lives.
The latter group
Tanenbaum's own
should trouble us most,
story begins in 1984. She
says Tanenbaum, because
was a "well-developed"
"unlike the victims of
ninth-grader who made
other crimes, girls and
the mistake of "fooling
women who have been
around" with a boy cov-
raped are automatically
eted by a popular class-
assumed to have initiated
mate. The classmate vin-
the act in some way."
dictively spread the word.
The myth endures: "She
Cruel taunts and cold
asked for it."
treatment followed, shat-
Tanenbaum refuses to
tering her self-image,
accept the double stan-
decimating friendships
dard as inevitable and
Leora Tanenbaum:
and ruining her high
goes further than merely
As a student at a girls
school life.
exposing its present-day
yeshiva in Manhattan,
When she wrote an
existence. She calls for a
the author underwent
article for Seventeen mag- her own experience of
single sexual standard for
azine in 1993 that
both genders, one that
sexual labeling.
described her personal
applies to older teenagers
experience, there was
and to adults. She calls for equality:
impressive reader response.
"If you think that 16-year-olds
Tanenbaum discovered she was not
should not behaving intercourse, that
unique. Now a successful journalist,
includes boys as well as girls." Boy
she found women of all ages and
jocks, she points out, savor their repu-
backgrounds had similar stories to tell,
tations for "scoring," but girls who
and she concluded that what they had
might share the same sexual stirrings
endured, in today's terms, was blatant
and curiosity as boys are expected to
sexual harassment.
suppress their feelings. She has little
Convinced she had identified a seri-
patience for the "masculine mystique,"
ous problem among young women,
which often leads boys to treat girls as
Tanenbaum put in five years of research.
sexual objects.
The result is her first book, Slut:
When it comes to "slut-bashing,"
Growing Up Female with a Bad
however, boys are not the worst culprits.
Reputation (Seven Stories Press; $23.95).
Girls are even worse: They spread
Tanenbaum's book challenges the
the gossip, encourage snubbing and
familiar double standard that tolerates
name-calling and reduce their victims
a "boys will be boys" attitude while
to tears. Many of the case histories are
branding any sexually active girl a
heartbreaking.
"slut." It begins with a provocative list
And where are the school authori-
of 28 negative expressions for a sexual-
ties during these trying times?
ly active woman; only three for a sexu-
Tanenaum finds that school princi-
ally active man.
pals, guidance counselors and teachers
He, for example, may be a

`Slut'

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What's In A Stereotype?

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generally avoid interfering with stu-
dents' personal affairs, and she calls
them to task. She remembers that no
teacher at the yeshiva inquired about
the cause of her own tears, and she
was even reprimanded by a school
administrator because her frequent
crying was "disruptive."
The correct response, according to
Tanenbaum, is for schools to recognize
that sexual harassment is now prohib-
ited by Title IX of the Education Act
of 1972. She describes several situa-
tions where schools have faced and
lost lawsuits for not responding to stu-
dents' complaints, and she provides a
list of resources for this type of action.

In the 1950s, a "good" girl dressed
primly and neatly and waited for the
boy to approach her and ask her out.

The book's provocative title implies
sensational material, and several inter-
views contain explicit language. But
there is impressive scholarship.
The author has read about adoles-
cent psychology and pop culture, and
she describes numerous films, televi-
sion programs, recordings and newspa-
per stories which encourage "a culture
of sexual entitlement." Too often, she
says, girls are victims of that culture.
Tanenbaum was surprised that so
many women in her study managed to
achieve personal and professional suc-
cess. "I assumed they would be defeat-
ed by their experience," she says.
Instead, many felt empowered. "Their
strength," she writes, "proved to me
that its those who use the insult 'slut'
who should be embarrassed, not us.
Definitely not us.

— Edith Broida