Lee Suckling: Why being called a 'ho' is no longer an insult

If you're part of a group that would have been targeted with slurs about your sexuality (e.g. women and LGBT+ people), and you want to reclaim it for yourself, it's yours for the taking, writes Lee Suckling. Photo / Getty Images

When I was a teenager, "ho" was one of the biggest insults you could throw at a woman. To insinuate (with an offensive curse word) that a young female was "easy" was to say she was dirty and unworthy of attention.

Two decades later, Instagrammers are now using the hashtag #thot, short for "that ho over there", with pride.

It's difficult to uncover the true etymology of the word ho. From the bible to Shakespeare, "whore" has a much longer history, and it appears ho (or hoe) is just a shortening of it. I did find out that in the 1960s the term "ho-bag" was a popular slur to describe a woman who was both promiscuous and ugly, which doesn't leave the best impression.

Today, thot and thottie can be unashamed proclamations of ownership of one's sexuality. Wanting sex, or attention for your body in a sexual manner, is no longer something that must be hidden in the shadows.

To self-proclaim as a thot is to be self-assured in your sexuality. Using it to describe yourself is a form of power; reclamation of something once used to insult you (or people like you) and removing it from the hater's lexicon.

Is it controversial? I think it's not unlike how LGBT+ people have adopted "queer" as a positive, not a negative, identifier. However, the more conservative among us might see the reformation of the word ho as questionable – spurring the same debate as the reclamation of the n-word in black and brown communities.

To self-define as thot is not gender-specific, which helps in devaluing it's misogynistic history. Both women and men will call themselves #thots on social media, particularly when posting a sexy photo and being honest that you have no shame about doing so. It's sometimes actually used in jest so online trolls don't have any power to abuse you.

This isn't to say it's okay to call somebody else a thot. To be safe, it's really only something you can use for yourself, e.g. with a selfie. To say "that ho over there" is otherwise derogatory when you're commenting on somebody's appearance or their sexual prowess.

However, I'll call my friends (and people I follow online) thot or thottie, but I use it as a term of endearment. Akin to the way "b**ch" is sometimes used (it's another reclaimed word for certain groups).

I consider it a compliment to post a comment such as "thot werk!" or "thottie!" on somebody's selfie, especially when accompanied by an appropriate emoji like the salsa dancer. If they're the kind of person who doesn't take themselves seriously and would self-identify as a thot, it's confirmation of how good they look, and how much of their sexuality they are owning.

So can YOU use thot?

If you're part of a group that would have been targeted with slurs about your sexuality (e.g. women and LGBT+ people), and you want to reclaim it for yourself, it's yours for the taking. If you want to call someone else a thot, you should also already be part of one of those groups (and only be using it as a compliment, not in a derogatory way, in situations where it will be received as such).

For anyone else, you might want to steer clear of commandeering this term. It could be considered sexist, misogynistic, predatory, or as sex-shaming. There will still be many people out there who, unlike me, will be offended by the word thot even being in existence.