If you're like me, the movie Mean Girls represents a lot to you. Not only is it about the last thing Lindsey Lohan did before going off the deep end, but it also just about accurately depicted growing up and going to high school ( except not really so much my high school, as I went to an all-girls Catholic school, so minus the boys and weird clothes). Anyway, the personalities depicted were pretty spot on. And quite frankly, there's a little bit of Regina George in every one of us. I don't care who you are.
Towards the end of the movie, Tina Fey's character has the attention of all the girls in the junior class. They've been called into the auditorium to discuss the burn book. And Fey implores the girls that they have to stop calling each other sluts and whores.
Sure, there's some merit to teaching girls not to call each other sluts and whores. It's rude, insensitive and, at least according to Lifetime Movie Network, will result in countless deaths.
But there's another, dare I say more compelling, reason not to call each other sluts and whores. My friends, this reason is Slander Per Se.
Under the legal doctrine of Slander Per Se, injury to the person's reputation is presumed, without proof of damages, if whatever was said falls into one of four categories. One of those categories, sugars, is the unchasteness of a woman. Another category is loathsome disease.
Yes, it is automatically slander to call a woman a slut (notably, this is not the same for men). It's also automatically slander to say your bestie has chlamydia. You could double it up and say your bestie has chlamydia because she's a whore.
So why shouldn't you call your girlfriends sluts and whores? Well, because they'll sue you. And they'll win.
But certainly no one would sue for that you say. Oh but they would. This is America. And in America, when we're offended, we sue.
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