What is it with Slut?

As with so many fraught or politically tricky words, context is everything when it comes to "slut."

These days the word is often used as an affectionate tease among friends, especially adolescent girls. Or it has metaphorical meaning – you're a slut for something you can't resist.

At first it might seem that feminism and the sexual revolution have dulled the word's power to demean: how can anyone be a slut – "a promiscuous woman," as The Canadian Oxford Dictionary puts it – if females are free to be as sexual as men?

The word has become so benign that there's at least one "Slut" line of clothing, not to mention lip balm and bubble bath bearing the word.

You could argue that the "slutification" of female fashion has further demolished the barrier between what used to be considered "good" and "bad" girls.