IM SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE BUT IM POWERFUL - YOUNG-WOMEN NEGOTIATING SEXUAL REPUTATION

''Slag,'' ''tart,'' ''slut'' - these are all terms in common currency in 1990s Britain. Feminist researchers have identified how such insult s are used by men to oppress women and to deny female desire and sexua l agency. But how can we interpret women's own persistent use of such sexual insults? Can this simply be dismissed as evidence of patriarcha l brain-washing? This article explores young women's understandings of such terms and identifies three overlapping but distinct ways in whic h ''slag'' is defined: slag as ''other,'' slag as ''Everywoman,'' and slag as ''she who allows herself to be used.'' I argue that power, rat her than sexual activity per se, is central to the understanding of a ''real slag'' and that a woman may be ''promiscuous'' and yet not be p erceived as a slag because she is ''in control.'' It is this that acco unts for the popularity of figures such as Madonna. Madonna is not a s lag because she conveys the message: ''I'm sexually attractive but I'm powerful.'' In fact, Madonna and ''slag'' occupy the same conceptual space - the gap between being powerful and being sexually available. T erms such as ''slag'' express that contradiction, whereas Madonna appe ars to transcend it. Any attempt to challenge young people's concerns about sexual reputation must recognise the multiple levels on which su ch insults operate, the function of terms such as ''slag'' in naming e xploitation, and the conflicts young women experience in exploring het erosexual relations.