Slut-shaming in secondary essay?

[Ellie Arroway]

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Am I the only one reading Tildy's posts? I think they are very informative and address the issue at hand. OP, I think if you follow this advice you will be set.

👍 The term itself is really the only issue.

 

[pepes1lv1a]

A good umbrella term might be "gender issues". Then you can talk about that.

It's not a "gender" issue, though. It pertains to anyone who is demeaned on account of his or her personal sexual decisions. The reason it has been given such a shocking name is exactly because it is intended to get people's attention, and to make people realize that what they are doing when they criticize someone for his/her sexual attitudes (within the realm of the non-perverse and legal) as just as base as the behavior they are trying to criticize. It's flipping the reprobation back onto the critic, the idea being that this undermines its loaded rhetorical power.


OP, while I think it is awesome you want to write about sex-positive issues, do consider that perhaps a med school app isn't the place to do it--or at least, know (as I'm sure you do) that you will need to tread very carefully. Get lots of people to read what you write before you send it. Don't use the phrase "slut-shaming" without defining it--it implies you expect the adcom members to know what it means already, and comes off as shocking. I'd be happy to read what you write if you want an extra perspective.

 

[IJL]

No. Don't do this if you want to be a physician.

Adcoms at some schools have to go through over 10000 applications. They won't give every essay the attention it deserves, and they are looking for reasons to get rid of people so they can have a more manageable pool of applications to read.

If an adcom sees the word "slut" appear in what is supposed to be a professional document, they'll probably throw out the application based on that alone.



But let's assume they read your essay carefully and give you a fair review. Well, it's worth remembering that the medical profession is one of the most conservative professions of them all. In other words, some of these people probably support slut-shaming.


So basically, if you write about slut-shaming, either the adcom will throw out your application immediately, or throw it out later.

This X 100000


I can't believe anyone would actually consider this as a topic.

 

[Radon XP]

It's not a "gender" issue, though. It pertains to anyone who is demeaned on account of his or her personal sexual decisions. The reason it has been given such a shocking name is exactly because it is intended to get people's attention, and to make people realize that what they are doing when they criticize someone for his/her sexual attitudes (within the realm of the non-perverse and legal) as just as base as the behavior they are trying to criticize. It's flipping the reprobation back onto the critic, the idea being that this undermines its loaded rhetorical power.

If that's what you mean by it, then what's wrong with judging and criticizing others? People do it all the time. I don't want to live in an amoral society. Of course, you shouldn't go out of your way to demean others (and that's now what I'm saying is okay), but simply having an opinion on something/making a judgment isn't wrong or "not-politically-correct". This kind of amoral thinking is problematic. Tolerating something should not me approving of it or thinking nothing of it.

 

[survivordo]

I must say, if I saw this term at the beginning of your PS I would certainly read the rest of it to figure out WTF you are talking about. However, I probably wouldn't interview you based on the fact that you couldn't come up with a more sensitive way to discuss the topic.

Survivor DO

 

[alpinism]

If you write provocatively like a slut? What does that even mean?

^ OK that doesn't make any sense. If OP writes about the double standards, bullying, harassment and sometimes physical attacks that supposedly "provocative" women face, adcoms will think OP is a slut? Some misogynistic medical school that would be.

I think our fear of using the word "slut shaming" (kind of like how people cringe to use the words "rape" and "sex" and "vagina") sort of goes to reinforce the importance of bringing awareness to slut-shaming in today's society. If I were an adcom member I would internally cheer if you used the word, but that's just me, unfortunately 🙁 so I must dejectedly agree with the above posters and advise you to leave the term out. But I think yon can (and should) absolutely talk about the subject! Make sure your PS ultimately shows why you want to be a doctor and what you've done to prove it, but this is definitely an interesting issue and a little-discussed social issue that does have some medical ramifications in some instances, so I think you could turn this into a very powerful PS if you work at it.

Its so painfully obvious that some of these posters have NO idea what the issue at hand is. I don't think you need to leave it out of your essay. If you care enough about the issue, you can find a way to write it so that the 80 year olds reading it will not be offended. I think its an important message so go for it!

Lol. If you want my serious response:

No. Don't do this if you want to be a physician.

Adcoms at some schools have to go through over 10000 applications. They won't give every essay the attention it deserves, and they are looking for reasons to get rid of people so they can have a more manageable pool of applications to read.

If an adcom sees the word "slut" appear in what is supposed to be a professional document, they'll probably throw out the application based on that alone.

But let's assume they read your essay carefully and give you a fair review. Well, it's worth remembering that the medical profession is one of the most conservative professions of them all. In other words, some of these people probably support slut-shaming.


So basically, if you write about slut-shaming, either the adcom will throw out your application immediately, or throw it out later.

 

[LizzyM]

I can't imagine the secondary prompt that would require the word "slut shaming". I'd guess that it would be risky to use although it might not kill any chance at every school.