So I've been thinking a lot (and debating quite a bit in here the past few days) about the concept of a slut. I feel like the word slut carries with it a stank of sorts, as though the slut in question treats sex like something flippant and easy.

I thought to myself, what about women who have a high partner count but don't treat sex flippantly, women who are having sex with men they want a committed relationship with, but for some reason it just keeps not working out, enough times that now she's got herself a partner count that some men would consider high, despite never having had casual sex.

Then I thought, well, no one over at TRP would believe that's even possible, what with how easy they claim it is for women in the dating world.

And then I thought of Taylor Swift, a young, feminine, beautiful, well-off woman who has literally made a career with songs about failed relationships that she was into. Taylor Swift even promotes slut-shaming in her music, something that's earned her quite a bit of criticism from feminists. She might have apologized for it, I don't recall, but she has a lyric that goes "she's better known for what she does on the mattress" in regards to another young woman in one of her many songs about relationships, amongst others. In her break-out hit she compares herself to the prettier, more popular and mainstream girls in her school (implying that she has more substance than them), longing for her crush to notice her.

My personal theory is that she's probably clingy and drives guys away. But anyone even remotely familiar with her music can tell that the overall theme is her desperate search for true love.

So if such a situation can happen to her, a beautiful, famous, wealthy woman who by all rights shouldn't have any trouble finding a boyfriend, surely there are other women out there too with similar stories. The fact that Taylor Swift's music has such an appeal to young women implies that they're able to relate to it in some way.

Food for thought on the reasons women might have a high partner count, and situations that are more complicated than grouping all women into the categories of 'undatable sluts' and 'datable chaste girls'.

PS: This is not an attempt to bash Taylor Swift or to encourage others to do so, I'm using her story (as it is very public and well-known) as an example.