If you’re a woman, chances are you’ve been called a slut.

Women who have slept with 10 men have been called sluts. Women who have slept with one man have been called sluts. Women who have never had sex have been called sluts. Eleven-year-old girls have been called sluts. Laura Ingraham was called a slut by Ed Schultz, simply because she was politically conservative. Sandra Fluke was called a slut by Rush Limbaugh, simply because she supported access to birth control.

I’ve been called a slut, too.

In the first op-ed I wrote for The Crimson, I briefly mentioned that feminism is important to me because it gives me freedom, including the “freedom to have as many sexual partners as I want without being looked down on.” I thought it was clear from this statement, given the context, that I was pointing out the double standard when it comes to male and female sexuality, and the fact that men are not subject to the same judgment and disapproval that women receive for having multiple sexual partners.

Unfortunately, that meaning was lost on some readers—in particular, a journalist and conservative commentator named Robert Stacy McCain. He incorrectly interpreted my statement to mean that I wanted to engage in promiscuous activity, and that other people were not allowed to have their own opinions about my behavior.

McCain responded to my article by writing a blog post titled “Harvard Sluts and the Thought Police.” In his blog post, he accused me of being sexually promiscuous and he derided me and other Ivy League girls for being unclean and immoral.

He railed against “those tramps at Princeton” and the “floozies at Cornell” and the “vile hussies” at Harvard who “[put] out for every random guy in Cambridge” and are a “public health menace.” He ended his piece by saying that nothing is as “dangerous as having sex with a nasty Harvard slut,” and I can only assume he was referring to me.

However, in the comments section below, it appears that Robert Stacy McCain would actually risk that danger. In his comment, McCain said that he saw a picture of me online, and he conceded: “I’d hit it, after wrapping myself head-to-toe in latex and spraying her with Lysol.”

I cannot deny that I am disgusted by his spiteful comments. However, I am also grateful. It is people like McCain who give me the motivation, the drive, and the passion to continue writing about gender inequality. It is people like him who make me realize just how real the gender double standards are, even at this day and age, and just how important the feminist movement is.

It is ironic that McCain, in writing this blog post, presented such an excellent real-world example of exactly the type of double-standard phenomenon I wrote about in my op-ed.

In response to my innocuous statement about the societal double standard regarding male and female sexuality, McCain attacked me for being sexually promiscuous. It seems that accusing me of excessive sexual activity was the easiest way for McCain to smear my reputation and discredit my opinion.

This is, sadly, true for all women in our society. The fastest way to bring down a woman—any woman, of any age, for any reason—is by calling her a slut.

Men of different political stripes such as Ed Schultz and Rush Limbaugh employed this method in dealing with women they disagreed with. Even women use this term against other women, as a way to tear down someone they envy or dislike.

The same, however, does not hold true for men. One commenter on McCain’s blog unwittingly provided an excellent example of the double standard, saying of me: “I also have to wonder what her parents make of her demands. She seems to put more emphasis on her sex life than on her education and career. Sounds a little skewed to me.”

You know what sounds a little skewed to me? I mean, besides the fact that you think I don’t put emphasis on my education and career when I am studying at Harvard and have seven internships under my belt. No, it’s the fact that you’re worried about what my parents think of their adult daughter for writing about sexual inequality, but you’re not worried about what McCain’s six children think of their 56-year old father for saying he’d like to have sex with an 18-year old college freshman.