The sexual revolution has accomplished so many amazing things, from kick-starting the sex positivity movement to ushering in an unprecedented era of increased female empowerment. Unfortunately, one Chicago resident might be taking the sexual revolution a bit too far: This woman has a mug, a t-shirt, a tattoo, and a decorative neon sign that all say “slut.”
This is definitely something of a gray area. We’re all for reclaiming the word “slut,” but this seems a little bit excessive.
You don’t have to spend much time with 32-year-old advertising executive Jessica Owens to get the sense that she really, really loves to call herself a slut, and will spare no expense doing so via various items of novelty merchandise. On any given day she can be found wearing three or four articles of clothing that all say “slut” on them, and she keeps three mugs in her office kitchen that all incorporate the word “slut” in some way. One mug simply says “Slut,” while a second says, “I’m A Slut For Decaf (And Also For Sex),” and a third mug says, “Slut’s Goblet.” Whenever she receives a text, her phone plays a soundbite of a robotic voice saying, “Message for the slut.” And she has a giant neon sign hanging over her desk that says, “Slut At Work.” All in all, it’s safe to say that Jessica is really leaning into the word slut in a way that’s honestly a little off-putting for even the most sex positive people.
“I think it’s great that Jessica feels confident expressing her sexuality, but I wish she would stop calling her apartment “the slut’s dungeon,” says Jessica’s friend Cathy Burgess, who also complained about the bumper sticker on Jessica’s car that says “When You Honk At Me, You’re Honking At The Slut.” “Between her ‘Slut’s Foot’ tattoo that she has on her foot and her ‘Sluts For Universal Health Care’ t-shirt, the word ‘slut’ has basically started to lose all meaning when I’m around her.”
Yikes. It really seems like Jessica might be taking the whole slut thing a bit too far. As of last week, she’s even changed her job description on LinkedIn from “Copywriter And Creative Director” to “Slutmaster General.” Here’s hoping she’s able to scale things back a bit, because it sounds like she really might be taking things completely over the edge vis a vis the word “slut.”
