When skeezy football player Chuck Clayton dared to tell the school all about his hookup with Veronica Lodge, he got served a bottle of maple syrup while boiling in a hot tub. (Thanks, Dark Betty.) However, slut-shaming isn't just the stuff of Riverdale plot points: It's a real thing that happens to women everyday, and sadly, often other women are the perpetrators.
Riverdale star Camila Mendes admitted that she was once the victim of slut-shaming, and her story is both relatable and hugely disappointing.
In her interview with Teen Vogue, Mendes revealed that she was once the victim of mean girls who hurled gross, misogynist terms like "slut" at her when she was still in her early teens.
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"These two girls who were a few years above us put out this video on Facebook, and they were just like, 'Who are freshman sluts? Cami and Kylie.' They just kind of made this video talking about how much we were sluts ... [when the reality is that] both of us were in relationships, and not even hooking up with anybody but our loved ones."
Of course, it doesn't matter who a woman chooses to get physical with — it's never acceptable to call someone a derogatory name, especially one that polices women for being sexual. Fortunately for Mendes, the slut-shaming was shut down by other people in her school who didn't give the bullies the validation they craved...but that didn't make what happened okay.
"[At] the end of the day, my sexuality, my friend's sexuality, was none of their business, and not theirs to judge," Mendes told Teen Vogue. "I think when you're at such a young age, you do stupid things, and you kind of let those negative emotions take over."
Veronica may be battling slut-shaming bullies in the halls of Riverdale High School, but Mendes is bringing her message to the masses.
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