"A girl’s sexual status is a metaphor for how well she fits into the American ideal of femininity. Boys who don’t comform to the masculine role are similarly judged on a phantom sexual scale—the short boy with the slight build who strikes out whenever he’s up to bat is called a fag, even though his ability in sports says nothing about his sexual orientation. Yet a “fag” can overcome his status through bench-pressing; there is little a “slut” can do to erase her stigma. Magnified by sexual metaphor, her social difference defines everything about her. She represents soiled femininity."
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