The Definition of the Phrase Slut Shaming

The Definition of the Phrase Slut Shaming ÑSlut shaming is the deliberate act of calling a woman a slut, a whore or impugning her character in sexual terms in order to embarrass, humiliate, intimidate, degrade or shame her for actions or behaviors that are a normal part of female sexuality. Although the act of slut-shaming is not exclusive to either gender, females of every age from girls to adults often engage in slut-shaming to put down or express contempt for another female. Slut-shaming is often associated with mean girl behavior but is not restricted to that age group. A slut-shaming story from a personal blog illustrates how this practice can happen in the unlikeliest of settings: [O]ne church member...called another member a slut because of the latter’s shoes (which had been part of a Halloween costume) with stiletto heels. It was a joke...[which] hints at the truth...that even if you are a good Christian, if you also happen to be wearing certain clothes, you will be stigmatized sexually if you are a woman. Slut shaming entered the public consciousness in 2010 due to two separate events: the suicide of Phoebe Prince, a high school student who was so humiliated by her classmates that she hanged herself; and the 2010 midterm election in which two Congressional candidates, Christine ODonnell, and Krystal Ball, were attacked by the website Gawker which published an anonymous tell-all about a night spent with ODonnell and candid photos of Ball at a Christmas party posing with sex toys. Slut shaming was also depicted in the CBS series The Good Wife when a female candidates breast augmentation surgery was revealed by her male opponent. In the episode which originally aired November 9, 2010, the candidate directly addressed the situation and revealed she was a breast cancer survivor who had kept her double mastectomy a secret and was having breast reconstructive surgery following cancer treatment.

Genyornis - Facts and Figures

Genyornis - Facts and Figures Name: Genyornis (Greek for jaw bird); pronounced JEN-ee-OR-niss Habitat: Plains of Australia Historical Epoch: Pleistocene (2 million-50,000 years ago) Size and Weight: About seven feet tall and 500 pounds Diet: Probably omnivorous Distinguishing Characteristics: Large size; hooved, three-toed feet About Genyornis From Genyornis Australian provenance, you might think it was closely related to modern ostriches, but the fact is that this giant prehistoric bird had more in common with ducks. For one thing, Genyornis was much more solidly built than an ostrich, packing about 500 pounds into its seven-foot-tall frame, and for another, its three-toed feet were hooved rather than clawed. The truly mysterious thing about this bird is its diet: its jaws seem to have been well-adapted to cracking nuts, but theres evidence that occasional servings of meat may have been on its lunch menu as well. Since Genyornis is represented by numerous fossil remainsboth of various individuals and of eggspaleontologists have been able to pinpoint with relative accuracy when, and how fast, this bird went extinct. The speed of its demise about 50,000 years ago, toward the end of the Pleistocene epoch, points to relentless hunting and egg-raiding by early human settlers, who reached the Australian continent around this time from elsewhere in the Pacific. (By the way, Genyornis was a close relative of another Australian mega-bird, Bullockornis, better known as the Demon Duck of Doom.)