Book Review: I Am Not a Slut, by Leora Tanenbaum

This review originally ran in Shelf Awareness for Readers.

In I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet, Leora Tanenbaum returns to the subject of her 1999 book Slut!: Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation, updating her research on slut-shaming and name-calling to reflect the changes in the social and digital landscape over the last 16 years. She explores the differences between slut-bashing and slut-shaming, the myriad ways teens and young adults use the Internet and social media to shame young women and the ever-evolving ways that gender norms shape our images of sex, sexuality and sexual assault.

The information that fuels I Am Not a Slut is based as much on the dozens of interviews that Tanenbaum conducted with women and girls across the country--ranging in age and race and sexuality--as it is on quantitative data and scientific studies. The resulting arguments are all the stronger for the anecdotal evidence that accompanies them. In many instances, however, Tanenbaum uses absolutes, making claims about "every woman," "all men" or things that happen "always," which weaken her otherwise thoughtful arguments. She is at her strongest when dealing with double standards of sex and sexuality (how, for example, men are expected to have many sexual partners while women are criticized for exactly the same thing) and how the prevalence of slut-shaming amplifies a culture of victim-blaming.

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A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review.

I Am Not a Slut | Leora Tanenbaum | Harper Perennial | Trade Paperback | February 2015