Reclaiming the Word Whore and Women's Sexual Power
For centuries women have been classified into categories of being either good or bad. Good being virginal, (her hymen intact), a woman that does not sleep around or who is not promiscuous; bad meaning, just the opposite, a “whore”, slut, seductress/seducer, a woman who enjoys sex with many men who steal other women’s men or who just enjoys sex. Although today in Western society, women have more freedom than ever before, these old attitudes still remain. In many other countries throughout the world, a woman’s virginity is still considered a prize possession kept only for her husband and if a woman is found to not be virginal when she is of a marriageable age she is ostracized and considered ruined and unclean. Clitorectomy's are still performed in some Islamic cultures because they believe that women are too sexual by nature and therefore their sexual desire must be curtailed. A girl is pure and innocent if she has never touched herself o...