On Oct. 19, actress Rashida Jones disappointed and upset many Internet users with a series of tweets of her thoughts on female celebrities’ clothes — or rather their lack there of. It was her use of the hashtag #stopactinglikewhores that really got the ball rolling. Some people have praised Jones for standing for classy women, while others have called her commentary slut-shaming.

Let’s be clear. This is not an either/or issue. Jones actually does address an issue with women in pop culture. For years they have been hypersexualized and objectified in order to turn a profit. However, calling female celebrities whores, even in a hashtag, is slut-shaming. You can’t claim to respect women’s rights to dress and act how they want and call them all whores at the same time.

Some of you may be nodding your head in agreement; you know slut-shaming is a real problem that we need to fix. Some of you may be rolling your eyes, irritated that I’m throwing it in the mix. Please hear me out.

What is Slut-Shaming?

The simple answer is criticizing or attacking a woman for being “too” sexual. This can be something like having multiple sexual partners, acting on sexual feelings or being scantily clad. Slut-shaming tries to make women feel guilty for acknowledging their sexual feelings. This is harmful to all women.

By and large, men don’t face the same social shaming for embracing their sexuality. Women have to live with a double standard; They continually have to question if hooking up with someone or wearing a certain outfit makes them a “slut”, while men get to celebrate their sexual conquests. Women and men have to play by different rules when it comes to sex.

These rules tell us that men are allowed to have sex for the sake of having sex, but women only get to have sex for love. They’re not suppose to like just sex.

Wrong.

Women like sex too and want to have sex. More importantly, they should be allowed to completely embrace sexuality and enjoy it without being demonized.

Jones’s twitter analysis of female celebrities and their clothing choices was not all bad. Before we take a look at where she went wrong, we need to look a what she did right.

Jones is not some terrible sexist person, and it’s not my goal to attack her. She really brings up a very good issue that we need to talk about; she just missed the mark a little.

What She Got Right

“Let me clarify. I don’t shame ANYone for anything they choose to do with their lives or bodies…” Jones tweeted, “BUT I think we ALL need to take a look at what we are accepting as ‘the norm.’”

We really do need to take a minute to look at what we passively accept as “the norm,” especially for women. As far as women in pop music go, this lack of clothes that has captured the public’s attention lately is nothing new. It goes back at least 30 years. The best way to be successful as a female pop singer is to take off your clothes.

We all know the old adage: sex sells. This is just these women’s way of playing the game. Stripping down sells records and concert tickets, it gets their names in the media. We eat it up. These women probably wouldn’t strip down as much if it wasn’t such effective marketing.

The fact that so many female celebrities feel the need to capitalize on their sexuality in order to capture the spotlight is disheartening. There are two versions of woman they can choose to be: the All-American sweetheart, like Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and pre-2012 Miley Cyrus, or the unattainable sex symbol, like Rihanna, Katy Perry and the latest version of Cyrus.

What She Got Wrong

The simple answer: calling scantily clad female celebrities whores.

Whore is a negative word that has long been used to cast judgement on women for having sex. Jones tweeted that she wasn’t shaming anybody for doing what they want with their bodies, while using a word that is highly judgmental. It is hypocritical.

Jones seems to have been well intentioned in her tweets, but she has no place policing anybody’s sexual expression, especially not other women’s. You can’t empower women while simultaneously putting them down.

Jones would have been fine if she had just left out that stupid hashtag. It ruined the whole statement. Now we have to discuss whether or not Jones is slut-shaming when we should be focusing on how women still have to live with a sexual double standard that says we are sluts and whores if we aren’t chaste beacons of virtue and purity.