WELL: Matthew Yglesias inveighs against my use of the term 'slut,' in a previous post.
"Whether or not engaging in promiscuous sexual conduct will make (all? most? many? some? a few?) women happy, I think it definitely would be liberating to live in some future period where people don't grow up familiarizing themselves with the proper application of "slut" and various cognate terms."
Whether or not I agree depends on what he's saying here: if he's saying that the term is pejorative, and it's best to avoid them whenever possible (as Will Baude argues in part), then I don't particularly object to that. If what he's criticizing (and I suspect it is what he's criticizing) is the underlying moral judgment that underlies the use of the term 'slut,' well, I don't think I can get on board with that. You might object to the moral formulation that says that a woman (or man) who engages in lots of promiscuous sex deserves to receive some sort of moral censure, but as there are people who do think that way, it seems odd to suggest that they shouldn't have a word to use.
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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