I'm in the camp of: It's only offensive if you take offense to it. I'm not saying that I go around calling people sluts, but it does happen. I agree that it has a negative connotation. However, no one can control what others say. They can only control how they react to it. If someone is so sensitive about a word then maybe it is hitting close to home and they are stuggling with the issues themselves. For example, if a woman is upset about being called a slut, maybe she feels that she possibly is one according to society standards. I don't know what the magic number is. Actually, I don't think there is one. I think that people just set their own numbers and use that as the judgment for everyone.
Anyway, if we didn't have the word slut, I wouldn't have one of my favorite songs which I was listening to today in fact.
Howlin' Maggie: I'm a Slut. I always loved shouting out that song at their concerts...and I did at the last 3 we went to. I died laughing when people who didn't know it was a title of one of their songs gave me a sideways glance. Guess they thought I wanted in the singer's pants or something.
