Recently, female students at Stony Brook University and other campuses nationwide have adopted the custom of transforming slurs and derogatory terms for women into terms of endearment for one another.

“I love you, bitch!” and “I love you, slut!” are increasingly flung around campus between college women. They can be heard in conversation, read in BlackBerry texts thumbed in secret beneath classroom desks, posted on Facebook walls and even shouted in passing. Many female students are now displaying a growing affection for speech that was once taboo and degrading.

According to Ritch Calvin, a women’s studies professor at Stony Brook University, the trend toward some young women accepting those words as legitimate forms of endearment is a symptom of “third-wave feminism.”

Third-wave feminists – which emerged in the 1990s — redefined femininity by allowing women to integrate their own identities and perceptions into what feminism is all about- freedoms of all kinds including sexual freedom. A major goal for third-wave feminists was to reclaim their own sexuality. “Before the movement, femininity still called for a woman to be non-sexual,” Calvin said. “This reinforced gender roles already set by society.”

According to Calvin women generally avoided public acknowledgement of their sexuality before third-wave feminism. Sexual freedom may mean more willingness to express opinions but members of Stony Brook’s Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance say the use of derogatory words goes too far.

“The society is turning towards superficiality,” said Maria Castillo, 21, a biology major. “We’re making sex less of an emotional thing. It’s more like capitalism on sexuality — sex without meaning, sex without love, or for that matter, any kind of emotional attachment.”

Castillo also thinks such vocabulary creates a lose/lose situation for women.

“The term slut, along with its colorful synonyms, puts false pillars on sexual liberalization,” she said. “Women are supposedly liberated because they can have more empty sexual encounters. Yet society looks down upon that. I think this is dangerous because it objectifies women’s sexuality even further.”

But where does this leave the men? What happens when a male student sneaks one of these words into their lexicon?

Jeanie Romero, 24, a psychology major and Feminist Majority Leader Alliance member, said the reaction could get ugly.

“This is a girl’s club,” she cautioned. “Us girls can use them as terms of endearment because its our ‘club.’ If a guy calls you a ho, it can’t be seen as a term of endearment because he’s not in our ‘club.'”

Serge Petrosian, 19, an economics major and a male member of the Stony Brook Swim Team, finds this hypocritical. “When women call each other such names, it makes us think that it’s okay to call them that as well,” Petrosian said. “It’s not out of the blue for me to address my close female friends with a ‘slut’. They take it just as if one of their girlfriends used it.”

Recently, Petrosian witnessed a changing tide when men encounter female acquaintances. “Women suddenly get offended when men who aren’t friends with them use them,” he said. “I’m thinking, if you call each other that, then why are you getting mad at us men for using them as well”

Janice Lorenzana, 24, a women’s studies major and Feminist Majority Leader Alliance member, said it’s wrong for anyone to use those words.

“No matter who uses it, it reinforces the idea that women are sexual beings– they have one purpose and that’s sex,” Lorenzana said. “It’s all people care about. We have to have our sexual behavior displayed on our sleeves.” Some use the words to help discredit the negative images they conjure. “When I use “bitch” or “slut,” it’s my way of brushing off the stigmas that are placed on us as women,” said Diandra Rodriguez, 20 a double major in psychology and sociology and the president of the Latin American Student Organization.

Rodriguez described one example of how many women from Latino backgrounds deal with the advent of sexist slurs.

“As a Latina in my third year of college, I can assure you that Latina women especially know how it feels to be stigmatized for the way they look, dress, behave, and even speak,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like you can’t even breathe a certain way without being called a slut.”

Rodriguez uses these words to fight back. “We’re empowering ourselves by stripping the power these words have over us,” she added. “It’s the use of these terms as put-downs that keeps us from progressing at a faster rate.” Popular networking sites such as Facebook have made these put-downs more popular

“These sites are probably the place where these terms are evident, both as a form of endearment and as a derogatory slur,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not uncommon for me to leave my best friend a comment on her Facebook like ‘Hey ho,’ but it’s also not uncommon for me to open my honesty box and find ‘You’re a slut’ eagerly waiting there for me.” Websites such as juicycampus.com, comprised entirely of gossip posted by anonymous students, are filled with posts on topics like, “Who’s the biggest ho on campus?” or “You won’t believe who this slut had sex with!” “Sites like Juicy Campus are famous for the way they degrade women and men,” said Rodriguez. “Many people on this site, including myself, have been called a slut, ho, skank, etc. because it’s suspected they slept with someone.” But since sites such as Juicy Campus allow users to sign in, anyone could become a target for this particular form of endearment.

“I guess that’ll mean we’re all hoes,” Rodriguez laughed.