As Jazz pointed out this morning, there is a Twitter battle taking place between President Trump and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who is demanding the Trump resign from office. Trump’s tweet lashing out at Gillibrand said the Senator “would do anything“ for a campaign donation. Several people, including Morning Mika and fellow Senator Elizabeth Warren, thought Trump was insinuating Gillibrand was ready to trade sex for cash, i.e. Trump was calling her a prostitute. In response, Sen. Warren tweeted out this awkward defense of Sen. Gillibrand:

Are you really trying to bully, intimidate and slut-shame @SenGillibrand? Do you know who you're picking a fight with? Good luck with that, @realDonaldTrump. Nevertheless, #shepersisted. https://t.co/mYJtBZfxiu

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 12, 2017

It’s one thing to say Trump is being a bully but, as Hot Air contributor Gabriel Malor was quick to point out, saying Trump is slut-shaming Gilibrand is a bit…problematic.

Uuuhhh, as I understood it the word slut-shame means "to stigmatize (a woman) for engaging in behavior judged to be promiscuous or sexually provocative." Is that really what Warren means? https://t.co/49O718Mxys

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) December 12, 2017

I mean, if @SenWarren is using the ordinary meaning of slut-shame, then she's saying Gillibrand engaged in, er., promiscuous or sexually provocative behavior in exchange for campaign contributions, which . . . yikes.

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) December 12, 2017

Sen. Warren could have said that Trump was calling Gillibrand a slut, but slut-shaming suggests that Gillibrand was doing something that some people might actually consider to be, well, slutty, and Warren is defending her right to do that.

Over the past few years, there have been a number of “slut walks” in various places around the country that attempt to address this issue of “slut-shaming.” There was just one in Los Angeles a couple months ago. Here’s a bit of the description from the march’s website:

“Slut,” a word that exploded into disturbing context after a Toronto police officer told a crowd of college women that if they wanted to avoid sexual assault, they shouldn’t dress like sluts.

Infuriated women across the country, outraged by this comment united to take a stand…

Our mission is serious, but this day of dressing up, strutting your stuff, and standing up for gender equality is filled with fun, laughter, and a community to support a tremendous cause. It is about self-expression, unity, shedding stereotypes, and supporting one another.

The reference to “dressing up” in that last paragraph indicates that women attending these marches often dress provocatively to make a point: Just because a woman dresses a certain way doesn’t mean she is asking for sexual harassment or assault. The message of slut-walks is that sexiness is not a license to treat women poorly. As one sign at the rally put it: “Don’t tell me how to dress, tell men not to rape.”

Again, I think what Warren wanted to say was something like ‘Don’t insinuate a female Senator is a prostitute.’ But the image she actually conjured up was of Sen. Gillibrand coming to Trump in a sexually provocative way asking for money. And Warren’s response is ‘Hey, don’t diminish her because she’s being sexually provocative.’

I think the best way to sum up this incident is probably this image. “Hey, fellow kids, Sen. Warren is down with all the social justice lingo.”