ABOUT LEORA

Leora Tanenbaum is an expert on slut-shaming who is quoted and cited regularly in news stories, legal and academic journals, and social media.

She also is the editor-in-chief of the nonprofit DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) organization Catalyst. 

Currently, Leora is a frequent commentator for USA Today, where she discusses the gendered double standards faced by celebrities and non-celebs alike. On Instagram, she chronicles instances of dress-coding.

Her next book—a discussion of sexy selfies, why young people create and share them, and what the implications are within our culture of slut-shaming—will be out in 2025.

Leora has served as an expert witness, advising litigators defending the rights of women to control online images of their own bodies and to deter opposing lawyers from slut-shaming these women during legal proceedings. (To discuss engaging her as an expert witness, please reach out to Leora directly.)

Leora began researching and writing about slut-shaming before the term even existed. She coined “slut-bashing”—the precursor to “slut-shaming”—in 1999. “Slut-shaming” is now a recognized concept and field of study, and the term is used widely.

Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation (Seven Stories, 1999; HarperPerennial, 2000) is regarded as a significant contribution to feminist thought and the foundational text on slut-shaming. It is a staple in sociology, gender and women’s studies, and sexuality studies courses. It has been called one of the 20 “must-read” books of all time for women, alongside The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Beloved by Toni Morrison, and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. It has been mandatory reading for all first-year students at Bryn Mawr College and has been featured in several documentaries. In 2006, it was banned from the public library in Wichita, Kansas, because it was deemed "inappropriate" according to "community standards."

I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet (HarperPerennial, 2015) was the first book to analyze the proliferation of slut-shaming in the age of social media and digital culture. It was named one of 11 "groundbreaking books about women making history."

Leora is also the author of Catfight: Rivalries Among Women (Seven Stories, 2002; HarperPerennial, 2003); Taking Back God: American Women Rising Up for Religious Equality (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008; Counterpoint, 2009); and Bad Shoes & The Women Who Love Them (Seven Stories, 2010). Her books are available in translation around the world.

Leora has written for The New York Times, Seventeen, Newsday, New York Daily News, The Nation, and U.S. News & World Report. She has been a guest on Oprah, The Today Show, Nightline, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, The O’Reilly Factor, Melissa Harris-Perry, and National Public Radio.

Leora lectures at conferences, book festivals, and community centers around the country and at campuses including Barnard, Boston University, Brown, Columbia, Duke, Hunter College, Sarah Lawrence, Spelman, Stanford, and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, among others. She is a regular guest lecturer at CUNY Graduate Center’s PhD program in sociology. She has been honored as a "hero" of her New York State Senate district for her "intersectional advocacy for women's rights."

As a student at Brown University, Leora founded the first Jewish student magazine at the college, Mahberet, which went on to thrive for 30 years. Today, she continues her affiliation with Brown by serving as a member of the Advisory Council of the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University.