Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
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Question: Will the awful power of the word 'slut' defeat feminists' efforts to reclaim it? It's been over twenty years since then - Bikini Kill frontwoman and Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna scrawled the word SLUT across her stomach . In the years since, there's been a book called Slut! , countless feminist debates over the reclamation of the word "slut" and, in 2011, thousands of women took to streets across the globe in anti-rape marches called SlutWalks - a reference to how victims of sexual assault are often blamed for the violence done to them . Like "cunt" and "bitch", many feminists have long tried to wrest away from its original users the power and harm of the word "slut" and to give it new meaning . Increasingly, though, it's seeming like we might not succeed any time soon . Take Leora Tanenbaum: in 2000, she wrote Slut!: Growing up Female with a Bad Reputation chronicling girls' and women's experiences with the word . She herself was called a "slut" as a high school student in the 1980s - long before the term "sexual harassment" was coined - and told me"I had no vocabulary to understand what happened." Now, 15 years later, Tanenbaum is about to publish another book: I Am Not a Slut because, in part, the sheen of reclaiming "slut" seems to have worn off over the years . When she spoke to women who called themselves "sluts" with a "positive and defiant" spirit, all told her the decision had turned against them later- and all regretted it . Tanenbaum told me that, when women are in closed circle or close-knit community - like a protest with like-minded people, or among friends who understand the cheeky appropriation of the word - identifying as a "slut" can be empowering . But what inevitably happens, especially in today's digital culture where revenge porn, stolen pictures and cyber harassment is the norm, is that "it always spills outwards." For them it was an amazing feminist experience , but it didn't last . Every single person I spoke to who intentionally embraced a "slut" persona ended up being treated terribly by people outside of her circle , because the culture we live in is so dominated by the sexual double standard . But beyond women who tried to reclaim "slut" for themselves, other feminists have rightfully asked why we should all try to reclaim a word with so much baggage - especially a word that impacts different women differently, and brings them a lot more pain than righteous justice . SlutWalks, for example, are no longer the cause celebre they once were because some women of color spoke out against the ways in which the protests and the reclamation of "slut" focused on the ability of white women to simultaneously embrace the word and reject its meaning . A group of black female academics, activists, and writers wrote an open letter explaining that "as Black women, we do not have the privilege or the space to call ourselves 'slut' without validating the already historically entrenched ideology and recurring messages about what and who the Black woman is." Rutgers professor and writer Brittney Cooper wrote at the time,"To organize a movement around the reclamation of a term is in and of itself an act of white privilege." In response, some SlutWalk organizers changed the name of their protests ; today , while a handful of SlutWalks remain , the excitement over the movement has waned noticeably . But women everywhere are still being actively, physically hurt by the stereotypes that lead people to call them "sluts" . Just look to the high profile deaths of young women who were slut-shamed and a mass shooting where the killer said he was targeting "blonde sluts" : we're still being targeted because of our identities and sexualities , and it has, perhaps appropriately, put a damper on the once-celebratory reclamation of the word . Maybe that the wounds inflicted by "slut"- and the culture that encourages people to define women that way - that we once hoped were superficial are just too raw and too deep . Maybe the speed of the internet is too fast for us to control a word with so much potential to damage . There' s a poster on my living room wall by artist Favianna Rodriguez that reads:"I'm a Slut. I Vote. So Does Everyone I Sleep With. And You're About to be More Fucked Than I Am." For me, it captures the brash, in-your-face spirit that the feminist movement I've loved is known for . But in this time of unprecedented feminist power, the conversation about "slut" can be more reflective than fevered . Women who want to call themselves "sluts" shouldn't stop, or be made to stop - I love that women can embrace that which is meant to hurt them and find power in it . But I also know that we can still claim our sexuality and agency without using a word meant to denigrate- a word that still hurts so many people . Besides , we don't need "slut" to tell us what we already know: women have sex , some people don't like that and we're going to continue to do it anyway .

Answer: Like "cunt" and "bitch", many feminists have long tried to wrest away from its original users the power and harm of the word "slut" and to give it new meaning


Question: Putin and Erdogan: Partnership of convenience? The fate of the multibillion dollar project had been up in the air for a few months . Breaching EU competition rules, the pipeline project could have gone through if it had allowed access to suppliers other than Gazprom . The crisis in Ukraine and the mounting tensions gave EU policymakers an additional reason not to accommodate Russia's demands for special treatment . As a result, Putin declared that resources will be directed towards upgrading gas pipeline infrastructure linking Russia to Turkey - or even building an altogether new pipeline, in an attempt to save face and offset the losses incurred over South Stream . This decision underscores the pragmatism in the way Moscow and Ankara deal with each other . Meetings and official phone conversations between Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, more than 35 over the past few years, usually follow a very similar script . The two leaders agree to disagree on the ongoing human tragedy in Syria, where they sit on opposing sides, and proceed with bilateral business . This time around, they made the usual pledge to triple the volume of trade between the two countries from the current figure of $33bn to $100bn by the end of this decade . That might be an ambitious target but one should not forget that Russia is already Turkey's second largest trading partner after Germany . It is, furthermore, the second biggest market for Russian gas exports outside the former Soviet Union, with Germany again the frontrunner . Turkish construction firms have carved out a niche in the Russian market , benefiting handsomely from large public-funded project such as the Sochi Winter Olympics . This explains why Erdogan was deaf to calls for Turks of Circassian origin to boycott the games , which were set in the part of the Caucasus they were uprooted from back in the 1860s . Currently, there is a problem with gas deliveries over the Trans-Balkan pipeline to western Turkey via Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria , because of disruptions due to the constant wrangling between Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftohaz . If the winter is harsh , heating in Istanbul and other large cities in the Marmara region will suffer . That is not a welcome prospect for the Turkish government , which is heading for general elections in the first half of 2015 and is therefore determined to avoid such unpleasant shocks and also keep gas prices low . High-ranking Russian representatives, including Gazprom's CEO Alexei Miller, who was in Ankara last week, promise to step up volumes through the Blue Stream, the pipeline connecting the Russian grid to central Anatolia via the Black Sea, and reach a total of 30 billion cubic metres in 2014, from 25.6 billion cubic metres the previous year . In this context, it makes perfect sense that investment should be redirected from the botched South Stream project to the upgrade of Blue Stream . In the long run, Ankara would also like to move away from dependence on Russia and tap into new gas flowing from Azerbaijan - via the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) coming onstream in 2019 - Northern Iraq, Iran and, should a solution be reached on the Cyprus Issue, the Eastern Mediterranean . The AKP government has helped decrease imports from Russia to 57 percent of the overall volume , but in absolute terms, consumption in an expanding economy like Turkey's is only going higher . Luckily, the plummeting prices of oil have come as a huge bonus to the government , reducing Turkey's bill and improving the balance of payments vis-a-vis Russia . What Turkey is offering in exchange is neutrality in Putin's confrontation with the West . Ankara has a lot of reasons to be unhappy about the annexation of Crimea, home to a large Tatar community which views Turkey as a kin state, and about the frozen conflict in Eastern Ukraine . Yet ,  unlike all other members of NATO, it has declined to join the sanctions imposed on Russia (imports of Turkish poultry and seafood have rocketed since) . The strategic value of Turkey's neutrality has only gone up after Putin found himself shouldered aside by most emerging powers at the recent G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia . Russia has long encouraged Turkey's pursuit of an autonomous foreign policy and emancipation from NATO and the US . As the Turkish city of Antalya hosts the next G20 summit , there will be a renewed emphasis on Turkey's transformation into a global leader rather than a pliant western periphery . But geopolitical gains may not give Russia sufficient incentive to accommodate Turkish demands . Putin came with a delegation of 10 government ministers and a shopping list too . He would like to see progress on Rosatom's $20bn project to build Turkey's first nuclear power station at Akkuyu near Mersin . Construction work is expected to start in May , but reportedly Putin has insisted on a preferential treatment for the Russian state company by the Turkish tax authorities . It seems, however , that Erdogan has held his ground this time around and Rosatom has not obtained what it wanted . Though Putin's visit will be remembered for the South Stream announcement , what is most remarkable about it is the continued development of Russian- Turkish relations, amid mounting tensions between Putin and the West .

Answer: The crisis in Ukraine and the mounting tensions gave EU policymakers an additional reason not to accommodate Russia's demands for special treatment


Question: 'Selma' sets off new fight over Martin Luther King's contested legacy. Dr  Martin Luther King Jr  died young -- at age 39 -- and ever since his assassination in 1968 there has been a contest over his legacy . I've met black radicals who sneer at the national holiday celebrating his birth . They see the King holiday as white America's preference for celebrating a moderate, non-violent black leader instead of a militant, violent young Malcolm X. On the other side are critics who see the King holiday as political correctness taken to new heights . King was not a president, like Washington and Lincoln , so they ask why he is deserving of a national holiday . Blinded by racial bitterness, they suggest President Reagan signed the King holiday into law in 1983 as a token political gesture . Now a very good, emotionally powerful new movie -- "Selma" -- about Dr  King's historic role in the struggle for voting rights has set off a new fight over his legacy . This dramatic film by director, Ava DuVernay, will be remembered less as a record of Dr  King's greatness and more as a sign of the racial power struggles of the early 21st century . I know the real civil rights story . I've written two best-selling histories of the period . The greatest social movement of the last century belongs to all Americans . But some people prefer to play racial games . This movie fits in with the racially divisive discussion about who owns the history of the civil rights movement . It fits with polarizing racial figures like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton . They regularly exploit the history of the civil rights movement for their own personal gain  -- hosting television shows and getting money from corporations -- while not doing the hard work of addressing high rates of black crime, school dropouts and family breakdown . It is also fits with many white politicians who blame the poor for every problem and find it easy to push minority voters out of their districts while ignoring the nation's history of denying black people the right to vote . Now a version of the same race hustle is on display in Hollywood . To celebrate King as a hero, the director, who is black decided to make President Lyndon Johnson into a white villain . In one scene Johnson erupts in anger at Dr  King, telling the civil rights leader,"You've got one big issue, I've got one hundred and one." People who were in the room, black and white aides to the president and Dr  King, say no such confrontation ever happened . The movie also has Johnson approving of FBI Director J  Edgar Hoover's scheme to send Dr  King's wife an audio recording of her husband having sex with another woman . The historical record is clear . Yes, the tape is real . No, Johnson had nothing to do it . And the tape had nothing to do with events in Selma . All of that is what Bill Moyers called"the worst kind of creative license suggesting the very opposite of the truth." And when the director, DuVernay, was called on the distortion, she said people who care about history are the problem . She argued that crediting Johnson with supporting the Selma march was "jaw-dropping and offensive" and amounted to ignoring "black citizens who made it so." To her, the fact that Johnson explicitly endorsed the idea of taking the movement to Selma in a recorded phone call to Dr  King is just a nuisance . White directors have similarly distorted civil rights history . The 1988 film "Mississippi Burning" featured two heroes, both white and both FBI agents . That was an incredible distortion of a story about the bravery of civil rights workers who dared to go south to stand with beleaguered black heroes against racial oppression . In truth, the FBI was often in league with local police departments in covering up racially motivated murder . In 1988 that distortion was rationalized as a smart box office decision to offer white heroes to white audiences . Now that a black director has a chance to make Hollywood's first big movie about Dr  King, she sees it as time for payback and her own brand of distortion . Race retains a powerful grip on American guilt, fear, lust and anger . That's why controlling the narrative is so important . And the key to the narrative is in the facts of slavery, legal segregation and the fight for equal rights . That is why facts about Dr  King are subject to a constant power struggle . DuVernay is saying she will tell her story as a black story for black audiences with a black hero , and she will twist facts as she pleases . Mark Twain said:"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as much as you please." The facts are that mostly white students went south for Freedom Summer ; white ministers and rabbis took great risks and even died for the cause ; white government officials like John Doar and Nicholas Katzenbach put themselves between racist mobs and black people . None of this diminishes the contributions of black people . The truth is that President Johnson worked to make the movement a success . The president famously brought tears to Dr  King's eyes in 1965 when he told a joint session of Congress and a television audience of 70 million that every American should stand up for equal voting rights . "Their cause must be our cause, too," the president said . "Because it's not just Negroes, but it's really all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice." And then , in a rhetorical crescendo, the president said:"And we shall overcome." He used a phrase that told the nation he was on the side of civil rights for black people . As the author of a history of the civil rights movement, "Eyes on the Prize -- America's Civil Rights Years," I've done enough research to know that any fair account of the great social movement has to acknowledge Lyndon Baines Johnson as a civil rights hero . And Dr  King doesn't need to have anyone put down so he can look heroic . He really is a hero . That's a fact .

Answer:
Dr  Martin Luther King Jr  died young -- at age 39 -- and ever since his assassination in 1968 there has been a contest over his legacy