Let’s start off by saying that words like s***, hoe, w****, etc., are being used in such a light manner that it is hard to tell when someone is joking or not about using those words, but joking or not, it hurts to be called a s***. Or a whore. Or a hoe. Or to have someone come up to you and say “I thought you were a whore until I got to know you.” Or to have one of your teachers say that you’ll have to go to the special school for pregnant teenagers. Yeah, that all hurts. Who cares if they were being serious or not, words can still hurt.

A s***, by definition, is a woman who has many casual sexual partners. Calling someone a s***, even if they do have causal sexual partners, is not alright. First of all, someone’s sexual life isn’t your business, even if they go around telling people. Second, shaming someone for what they do isn’t the right thing to do, even if you don’t like what they do. Third, you may not know the whole story, or even if you do know the whole story, it isn’t right or a step in the right direction to be shaming someone.

Nowadays though, people are using s*** and other similar words in such a light manner that people aren’t taking shaming as a big deal. While there is a slight difference in jokingly calling your best friend a “little hoe for making out with someone” and walking up to someone and calling them a “s*** for losing her virginity at fifteen,” words can still hurt and affect someone’s thoughts about themselves and/or other people.

Hearing the words “s***, w****, hoe, etc.” being thrown around about yourself, can really hurt and affect someone. Even if someone is still a virgin, they can and will start to believe that they are a s*** if they hear people talking about them like that. It brings down their self esteem and they lose their confidence. Especially if rumors are being spread either around the school or on social media, it can really affect someone.

S*** shaming is another major form of bullying, especially with teenagers. We use those words in such a light, joking manner that we don’t bother thinking about what we say before we say it. The words just come out of our mouths and we don’t think twice about it, until we’re the ones being shamed. Treat others the way you wanna be treated, right? So how come we only listen to that mantra when it comes to our actions, instead of both our actions and our words? To end s*** shaming, and the causal use of such words, we need to end the stigma around those words and realize that name calling does hurt. Calling someone a s*** can have the same negative affect on them that pushing them into a locker can have. Name calling, s*** shaming in particular, is still bullying and it needs to be realized as such.