Speaking of sluts, did you read that Stephanie Rosenbloom piece? Holy cats, there's a lot to grab on to there. While our favorite lines ("Like 'queer' and 'pimp' before it, the word slut seems to be moving away from its meaning as a slur. Or is it?" I don't know, Steph! Why don't you give me a couple hundred more words about it!) and phrases ("But as Carrie Bradshaw might type on her laptop: Is there such a thing as going too far any more?" A lazy Sex and the City reference? In a lazy column about sluts in the laziest section of the paper? Is this the point where "meta" collapses in upon itself?) make this one of the top Thursgay articles ever, we'd have to say that the best part comes at the end of the piece, where we learn that

Some men, especially, seem to have strong feelings about the matter. "When I think of the word slut," wrote Don Reisinger, a student doing accounting and law work in Albany, in an e-mail message, "I think of a woman who has been around the block more times than my dad's Chevy. I might date a slut, but I certainly wouldn't marry one."

You hear that, gals? You wanna trap yourself an Albany accountant husband, you'd best keep it out of your pants. And we know the only reason you're putting out in the first place is so that you can eventually snag a man and fulfill your destiny of pooping out babies in Westchester:

For that reason, perhaps, women sometimes feel pressured to downplay their sexual experience. "Women still have a script for their future that involves marriage, that involves children," said Dr. Susan Freeman, an assistant professor of women's studies at Minnesota State University, Mankato. "It governs a lot of choices they make, how sexually active they can be, what risks they are willing to take in terms of alienating a possible marriage partner."

But perhaps the most important takeaway from the piece is this:

There seems to be a mysterious line between being experienced and being a slut, and no one can put a number on it. According to a government report released last year ("Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures"), men age 30 to 44 have had a median of six to eight sexual partners in their lifetimes. The women's median was about four.

This part actually happens to be wrong: There is no mysterious line. We've obtained the government research that breaks down how many partners a woman has had and its effects upon her marital potential. Here's the chart:

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Pretty grim, huh, ladies? Of course, there's still some disagreement:

Many women steer clear of the numbers conversation entirely, but as was pointed out several times in interviews, it would be more unusual for them to be virgins. The fact is, Ms. Levy said, "I think there are a lot of women who want to have a lot of sex because they enjoy it."

Yeah. The whores.

The Taming of the Slur [NYT]