i agree wholeheartedly with more or less everything except your last point. i think the word ‘slut’ is always harmful because it’s lazy, and i think lazy language encourages lazy thinking and a lack of empathy, diminishing our ability to recognise others as real human beings. some people do hurtful or manipulative things, but perhaps those people have better selves that they haven’t yet figured out how to be. perhaps they are just vicious on purpose, but that doesn’t occur in a vacuum either.