It can only be born, never destroyed.

I was reading Trouble’s blog today and a comment appended to her post caught my ire.

“Banning the word "slut" and all variations, in all languages would be a good start.” - rob

My, what a “sweet, caring, idealistic” sentiment. My, what a total load of putrescent shit! He might be a relatively intelligent guy, but on the basis of that statement he needs to be bludgeoned with sewer rats for uttering such brain-less platitudes.

Language is probably the most complex tool known to man. It is also the most vital. Wipe away every last trace of it and the race is extinct unless it can rediscover how to communicate.

At the most basic is body language. Facial expression, posture, skin tone, breathing pattern, how the body and limbs are positioned; these things convey an astronomical amount of information to the observer on such a pervasive level that only someone specially trained even stops to notice. Everyone you see is instantaneously linked to certain information.

Then you come to the level of the voice. What volume someone chooses to speak at, the tone. The sweetest sentiments in the universe are going to totally elude credibility if expressed with strident tones and fast, violent gestures. The most vile and malicious utterances can evoke smiles and comfort in a small child when conveyed by a soft, steady voice and slow movements.

From this foundation arises the tangle of formal language. The spoken and written word which seems to transcend both time and space. Phrases persist centuries after they were first spoken. Conversations circle the globe many times over every day. It is a living thing. As long as people use it, it is for all intents and purposes immortal.

And thus we come to the meat of the issue. One cannot realistically ban a word. The concept exists and so a word was forged to carry that concept. It cannot be expunged from the minds of humanity. Telling people that they cannot use a particular word only drives it to the fore much as the story of the magic carpet that will carry you just so long as you never think of pink elephants. No matter how tasteless and gauche a word may be, it will pass from someone’s lips to another’s ear. It shall be writ upon a page that another’s eyes will read. The ancient Egyptians did their utmost to erase the entire existence of a Pharaoh’s reign using chisels to turn his history and cartouche into dust from walls, painted over his murals, demolished his monuments and temples, and yet his name and heresy are still known. To truly remove the word “slut” from the vocabulary of the world is to exterminate every last Homo sapiens; every man, woman, and child extinguished. Even one, no matter how remote the odds, has the capacity to rediscover the words that have been written before and in that moment, all the efforts to remove the word have been in vain.

The only true way for a word to fade away is for it to no longer have utility, though it will never truly be forgotten. There are myriad words that are archaic if not obscure to the point of meaningless by the passage of time. Calling someone a Jute would likely result in them blinking in confusion if they didn’t assume you fucked up calling them a Jew. At one point in history, being identified as belonging to that particular Germanic tribe would have meant the difference between life and death. At the same time, there are places where the label of Jew is as dire today. The words still persist, but relevance sometimes does not.

As long as some women could be considered slovenly, the term of “slut” could be aptly applied. As long as a girl could be characterized as saucy, the word “slut” still has meaning. As long as the concept of promiscuity bears relevance and import in a society’s mores and values, “slut” will continue to hold a valid role in their lexicon.

Personally, I don’t see a time where there will not be one or more cultures in existence that will not advocate sexual fidelity and chastity to one degree or another. It's interwoven into the fabric of very wide-spread religions and several cultures. Consequently, the word is going to remain in active circulation. Accept it and move forward instead of trying to force the juggernaut to retreat.

Besides, any word can be used to hurt another person. Any word can be infused with hate or scorn. The idea that everything will be all sunshine and bunnies masturbating rainbows if they could only censor that one personally repellant word is insipid and criminally naïve. It’s fucking insulting. Words exist because of concepts; concepts do not exist because of words. If ugly words exist, it is because that ugliness exists in mankind just as beautiful words exist because of the beauty that exists as well.