Too much eye shadow? Skank. Skirt too short? Tramp. Hair too bleached? Shirt too tight? Shoes too high? Whore.

Female students at MSU seem especially quick to derisively sneer and gossip about other women who are dressed “inappropriately” for class or who are “desperate” for guys to notice them. Women from sororities in particular suffer from the “sorostitute” label and everything associated with it.

It’s one of the few facilitators of gendered division that isn’t perpetuated primarily by men. Why are so many women going head-to-head, finding any excuse to bring one another down?

The number of sexually derogatory terms for women is astronomically disproportional to the number of terms for men, but who perpetuates the use of such words more often? It’s truly dizzying how many times I’ve heard such scathing remarks, and it’s equally sickening that I have personally participated in identical discourse.

It’s time to turn off the “Mean Girls” switch.

Being “promiscuous” isn’t inherently contemptible; women don’t necessarily dress to attract men ,and, most of all, a person’s clothing does not reflect her morality.

Regardless of what’s driving you to disdainfully reprimand a woman for what she’s wearing, think about why you’re saying it.

Will this particular “whore” you notice receive more attention from men than you will because of her clothing? Are you jealous of her for having the confidence to wear something daring? Envious of her for meeting some arbitrary body ideal? Do you feel bad about yourself and thus want to detract any attention you might give to yourself? Do you feel sorry for her? Annoyed she’s trying to conform to someone else?

It’s one thing to comment on everyone’s clothing, whether it’s positive or negative, but many women seem to bond over the ritual of turning up their noses at these other scantily clad women or groups, similar to how they bond over hating their bodies or the number of calories they’ve consumed.

It’s necessary to examine why we would ever feel this way in the first place. Heterosexual women are pitted against each other for men’s attention in American society, and many claim there’s biological essentialism at work behind women’s “cattiness” — they’re naturally driven by predisposed personality traits making them like that. Gender roles radically change from culture to culture, however, and in the U.S., there is a distinct dichotomy of purity and immorality, an absolution in which women are coerced to fall to one side or the other. Appearance and sexual habits dictate the distribution, and to top it off, women receive insurmountable pressure to look a certain way. There’s always a competition to look or conform better to that archetypal beautiful image — as long as you’re not a slut while you do it.

Regardless of the reasons and absurd social constructions, the only purpose this kind of disparagement serves is polarizing an already repressed population. That’s not to say you’re required to agree with or approve of people who suffer from similar discrimination, but when it’s an issue directly linked with the debased characteristic itself, collaboration is crucial.

Women have a hard enough time wearing low-cut shirts without waiting for the entire world to determine how slutty they are. We’re constantly being forced to apologize for our bodies, our haircuts, our makeup, whether we’re shaved enough, are being “lady-like” enough or are fitting any variety of conditions that socially validate us. Then many of us sneer at and mock one another for falling short.

Let’s leave the jeering to Regina George, shall we?

Catherine Fish is the State News production crew chief. Reach her at fishcath@msu.edu.