Unsavory language question

[rogin]

I'm still struggling with the subtleties of the English language, so I have a question for the native english speakers on my flist. I was reading slash lately (big surprise) and I was wondering about some words, the terms "slut" and "whore" in particular. In German (like in French or Italian) most nouns have a gender. The translations of both this terms would be female in German, so they sound a bit awkward to me, when I'm reading them in slashfiction.
So I'm wondering, do they have a gender implication in English too, or would you say you perceive them as gender neutral? I dimly remember Brian being called a man-whore once, so I suspect that at least whore has a female implication,somehow.

Comments

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

(implying that a man is sexually aggressive or promiscuous is very often a compliment rather than an insult.)
sad and true. The same behaviour gets a negative association on females and a positive on males. Probably it's not so bad that the terms start to get mixed up.

I note that in slash these 'feminine' insults are usually applied to a male character who's being portrayed in the stereotypically female role. And then I kind of weep for humanity. :/
Yes, that was why i was posting the question, because while I sometimes like the whole powerplay thing, I don't like it associated with gender stereotypes. This just tends to put me off and then I thought that maybe it was rather my sexist translation/interpretation than the actual meaning.