Slut

All Music Guide:

German indie rock group Slut was formed in Ingolstadt, Germany, in 1995. The four members -- Christian Neuburger (vocals, guitar), Rainer Schaller (guitar), Gerd Rosenacker (bass), and Matthias Neuburger (drums) -- quickly found a home for their melancholy brand of rock and released their debut album For Exercise and Amusement on the independent label Stickman Records in 1996. After touring and building a fan base in 1997, the band returned to the studio to work on a follow-up, now joined by 5th member René Arbeithuber (who played keyboard in a band called Pelzig which also featured Slut's Rainer Schaller). Interference, released in 1998, was more refined and carefully recorded than its predecessor. In 2000, the band donated two songs to the soundtrack of Hans-Christian Schmidt's movie Crazy, and slowly but surely, Slut were discovered by bigger audiences.



In 2001, their major label debut album Lookbook was released on EMI/Virgin, with a more pop-oriented sound that also added more electronic effects but still retained their indie rock sensibilities. The single "It Was Easier" received heavy airplay on several radio stations, and after a large tour through Germany, the group returned with another album, 2002's Nothing Will Go Wrong. Their next album, All We Need Is Silence (2004), was more minimalistic, and the band received an art award by their hometown the same year.



In 2005, the band became part of a stage rendition of Berthold Brecht's Threepenny Opera, and the resonance was so positive that the group decided to record the songs and release them as an album. However, the Kurt Weill Foundation in New York prevented the release of the album at the last minute (the CD had already been pressed and was ready to be shipped), and ultimately, Slut were only allowed to release 5 of the 13 songs they had recorded on an EP called Die kleine Dreigroschenoper (The Small Threepenny Opera). In January 2008, the group released a new album called StillNo1, eschewing the more restrained sound of its predecessor and returning to a larger palette of sounds.

Wikipedia:

Slut or slattern is a term applied to an individual who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous. The term is generally pejorative and most often applied to women as an insult, sexual slur or offensive term of disparagement, meaning "dirty or slovenly". However, in recent times there have been attempts to "reclaim" the word, while some individuals embrace the title as a source of pride.

Etymology [edit]

Although the ultimate origin of the word "slut" is unknown, it first appeared in Middle English in 1402 as slutte (AHD), with the meaning "a dirty, untidy, or slovenly woman". Even earlier, Geoffrey Chaucer used the word sluttish (c. 1386) to describe a slovenly man; however, later uses appear almost exclusively associated with women. The modern sense of "a sexually promiscuous woman" dates to at least 1450.

Another early meaning was "kitchen maid or drudge" (c. 1450), a meaning retained as late as the 18th century, when hard knots of dough found in bread were referred to as "slut's pennies". A notable example of this use is Samuel Pepys's diary description of his servant girl as "an admirable slut" who "pleases us mightily, doing more service than both the others and deserves wages better" (February 1664). "Slut" and "slutishness" occur in Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It, written in 1599 or 1600. In the nineteenth century, the word was used as a euphemism in place of "bitch" in the sense of a female dog.

Similar words appear in Dutch, German and Swedish dialects meaning "a dirty woman," indicating a common ancestor in Germanic languages. The word entered the colloquial Yiddish as "akhsluttishkha" meaning "a hag". It exists in Ukrainian too as slutyj as a loan word from Yiddish or via the mediaeval Scandinavian Varangian colonists in Kievan Rus'. A popular theory connects slut to earlier Germanic forms meaning "slush" or "mud puddle," but this derivation remains in question.

Common usages [edit]

The accepted denotative meaning is a sexually promiscuous woman or "a woman of a low or loose character; a bold or impudent girl; a hussy, jade". These definitions identify a slut as a person of low character—a person who lacks the ability or chooses not to exercise a power of discernment to order their affairs, such as a cad, rake, or womanizer. The adjective "slutty" carries a similar connotation, but can be applied both to people and to clothing and accessories, such as Halloween costumes.

The term slut has therefore frequently been used as an insult. The derogatory power of the term derives both from its denotative meaning of a promiscuous woman, but also from its historical and regional connotations or alternate meanings that identify a slut as a dirty or unkempt person. These additional meanings and connotations are negative and identify a slut as being a slovenly and ugly person, for example, as in these quotations from OED2:

The attack on the character of the person is perhaps best brought together by the highly suggestive and related compound word, slut's-hole, meaning a place or receptacle for rubbish; the associated quote provides a sense of this original meaning:

The British journalist Katharine Whitehorn wrote a famous 1963 article applying this meaning in The Observer: "Have you ever taken anything out of the dirty-clothes basket because it had become, relatively, the cleaner thing? Changed stockings in a taxi? Could you try on clothes in any shop, any time, without worrying about your underclothes? How many things are in the wrong room—cups in the study, boots in the kitchen? ... [this makes] you one of us: the miserable, optimistic, misunderstood race of sluts." This article prompted a flurry of correspondence, with many women writing in to describe their own acts of sluttishness.

Alternate usages [edit]

Slut is used as a slang term in the BDSM, polyamorous, and gay and bisexual communities. With BDSM, polyamorous, and non-monogamous people, in usage taken from the book The Ethical Slut, the term has been used as an expression of choice to openly have multiple partners, and revel in that choice: "a slut is a person of any gender who has the courage to lead life according to the radical proposition that sex is nice and pleasure is good for you." A slut is a person who has taken control of their sexuality and has sex with whomever they choose, regardless of religious or social pressures or conventions to conform to a straight-laced monogamous lifestyle committed to one partner for life. The term has been "taken back" to express the rejection of the concept that government, society, or religion may judge or control one's personal liberties, and the right to control one's own sexuality.

British author Helen Fielding used the word in her Bridget Jones series to refer to slovenly or dirty habits, in the original sense still occasionally used in England: "Check plates and cutlery for tell-tale signs of sluttish washing up [...]"

American comedian Margaret Cho summoned the stance of slut pride and the idea of a slut pride parade in one of her stand-up performances, "And I went through this whole thing, you know. I was like: Am I gay? Am I straight? And I realized, I'm just slutty. Where's my parade?", pleading, "What about slut pride?"

Another example of the non-pejorative usage is in the song Slut Like You by Pink.

In the lyrics for the demo song Semi-Automatic by Taking Back Sunday, slut functions as a verb: "You slut me into this decision."

Slut shaming [edit]

Slut shaming or slut-shaming is a neologism referring to a type of discrimination targeting individuals, specifically women, for sexual behavior deemed excessive.