We’ve all tried to push people into little cardboard boxes with big black labels on them before. It’s part of our nature as human being; if we don’t understand something, we try to shove it into another category that makes more sense to us rather than trying to comprehend it. Everyone has seen that girl with all the make up on, the tight little dress who is flirting with all the boys in the room. Or that gorgeous guy who picks up girls every weekend by lying and sleezing onto them. Or that person who comes across as a huge snob, who never wants to speak to you. We’re all so quick to judge one another without considering the true reasons behind others actions. People don’t act the way the do for no reason. So maybe it’s time to give that girl in the high heels a break.

I was totally shocked when I was told that someone thought I was a snob. I couldn’t understand where they’d pulled it from. I work in retail and hospitality; I have to talk to people! It actually hurt quite a bit to hear the words, “Wow, I always thought you were a giant snob because you never talked to me”. It wasn’t at all that I was ‘snobbing’ this person. I was simply too shy to talk to them. Until my move to the big city, I was always hesitant to talk to people I didn’t know. Once I relocated, I literally had to come out of my shell or else I wouldn’t have been able to make friends. However, my shyness came across as being a giant ice queen to some people instead.

There is a girl I know who is absolutely stunning. She is a beautiful person inside and out, although to first meet her you might find her, for lack of better words, a superficial bitch. It isn’t until you get to know her and her back story that you realize that she isn’t this at all. Yet so many people judge her without getting to know her as a person.

I’m not saying that purely nasty people in this world don’t exist. We all know that they most certainly do. What I’m trying to convey is the importance of being non-judgmental. That girl you labelled a “slut” because she went home with a guy from the club? She might have just broken up with her boyfriend and is looking for an escape. She may have never had any male attention in her younger years and is now enjoying herself. People don’t act the way they do without due reason. Quite often, there has been some sort of opinion  imposed on them or some trauma to cause them to go about things a particular way. So why are we all so keen on putting anyone we don’t fully understand into a set, imposed category?

There is not a category for everyone in this world. To think that we can segregate society into little labelled boxes is ridiculous. We’re all so different and unique. Because of this we can’t cordon people off. Once you learn to accept people for who they are, you discover a whole new world at your feet. There are so many interesting people in the world, and by judging other before they even open their mouth, you’re shutting yourself off to so many intriguing life stories. I have friends from every subculture because I choose not to judge, and just accept them for their life choices. I have gay friends, tattooed friends, geeky friends, multicultural friends and I enjoy spending time with all of them equally because of their quirks. Enjoy others differences and you might meet someone you never want to forget.

I can never understand why people are so eager to confine others into little glass boxes, especially when it comes to women. I guess small-minded people find it easier to understand others if they can drop them into certain categories. One of the most common categories for women is the “Slut” box. I can basically guarantee that every girl over the age of thirteen has been called one of the above slurs. “Slut” is the ultimate form of verbal ‘shut-downs’ when it comes to women. There’s not a whole lot a woman can say when someone labels her a ‘slut’. As Rachel Hills in Cosmopolitan magazine says, it’s a way of silencing women. And it’s about time women started standing up to “slut”, instead shrinking away.

I can still clearly remember the first time I was labelled. I was thirteen, at high school and walking back to my circle of friends after visiting the canteen. As I walked past a group of boys, I heard one of them fling the slur at me. I had a split second where I contemplated what to do about the situation: I could keep walking and just let it go, or tell this arrogant, immature, little boy where to shove it. Being the fiesty little bitch I am, I was never going to take it lying down. I turned around and put him in his place. When I walked away, all of his mates were snickering about the fact he’d just been chewed out by a girl and that, even better, he was absolutely speechless.

Now a lot of women don’t have the confidence to take on their abusers. This needs to change. It isn’t about having confidence, it’s about female human rights. No one — male or female, old or young, black or white — has any right to degrade or abuse you. Frankly, it is absolutely no one else’s business how many people you have slept with, how frequently you have 24-hour flings, or who you choose to have sex with. But these days, “slut” is a lot more than just a name for a promiscuous woman.

In 2006, Sheikh al-Hilaly, a muslim cleric, stated that adultery and sexual abuse towards women was “90 per cent the women’s responsibility”. According to him, because women wear make up, wears short clothes, or even greets a man in a flirty manner, they were asking to be raped. It’s scary how many men and women seem to agree with this. No matter what you’re wearing, no matter how drunk you are, no matter who or how many people you’ve hooked up with, there is no reason for you to be called a slut or for you to be taken advantage of.

On the 3rd of April, 2011, SlutWalk happened in Toronto, Canada. What incited this was  a Toronto police officer was caught calling women at risk of sexual assault “sluts”. SlutWalk was a march organised in protest of this. 3,000 - 4,000 women walked producing an array of colourful signs, featuring “It’s my hot body, I’ll do what I want!” and “SLUTS SAY YES”. What this march really proved is that women do have the power to take control over “slut” back. It worked for gay and lesbians with the word “queer”, which is no longer seen as a serious insult, so why can’t women do it with “slut”?

It’s time we took a page out of the book of Olive Penderghast from Easy A. When everyone started slandering her as a “slut” and a “whore”, she decided that instead of just lying down and accepting it, she’d claim it. Don’t shy away or let yourself be shut down when someone pulls out the s-word. As soon as women decide that “slut” isn’t going to be the silencing slur that it’s become, the stigma will disappear. Just because you wear a short dress, have a bit of a flirt with boys, or decide to engage in a one night tryst, doesn’t mean you were asking to be sexually assaulted. It doesn’t make you a dirty and overtly promiscuous woman. You have every right to do anything you want with your body, because, guess what? It’s YOUR body! So next time someone decides to try and silence you with the s-word, speak up. Claim it, love it, revel in it. Silence them instead. Let’s take “slut” back.