I’ve seen it in titles of Vine videos, in the comments under photos of women posted on Instagram and Facebook and in songs. It was an acronym that I had not seen prior to 2014 and hoped would end once the calendar flipped to the new year, but it has persisted. Thus, the internet added another word to the growing lexicon of derogatory terms meant for women.
THOT, that “hoe” over there, besides being ungrammatical whenever it is used, is illustrative of cultural slut-shaming. Regardless of how time has led to more progressive attitudes about sex with the advent of oral contraception, women’s sexuality is still caught in a liminal space between liberation and victorian prudence. THOT functions no differently than other words used to describe women who do not conform to ideas of modesty. This includes women who wear revealing clothing that exposes skin above the knee and below the collarbone, talk openly about sex or are unapologetic in their pursuit of sexual relationships. Women who do not hold to a certain standard of womanhood determined by patriarchal society are branded as sexually promiscuous, immoral and undeserving of respect and get labeled as THOTs.
What makes this acronym more insidious than other terms is the lack of verbal sharpness that “hoe” and “slut” have gained over time. It first existed as an internet term and became a part of our spoken vernacular, sounding relatively innocuous, but it carries the same weight as any other derogatory term for women.
The emergence of this term and its persistence in our language proves we have a long way to go to when it comes to the treatment of women. Phrases like THOT will linger as long as sexism and gender inequality remain in our society.
