Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Double Standards: Wrong for All

According to my good friends from the Google search engine, a good definition for a double standard is: an ethical or moral code that applies more strictly to one group than to another.

Now, most articles you may read probably focus on double standards applied to one group of people, however, today we will focus on double standards that are found all around the world, most of which are commonly ignored. Double standards differ from culture to culture and from person to person, but sometimes however, these standards differ within groups of people and cultures themselves. This makes identifying these standards even trickier but, lets attempt to break some of them down.

Double Standards Concerning Men & Women in General:
1. A Woman Doing a "Man's Job" is okay, But a Man Doing a "Woman's Job" is Degrading

When a woman does a "man's job" she is regarded as strong and determined. However, when a man does a "woman's job" such as being a home keeper, he is immediately thought to be lazy and unambitious. But what exactly defines a "woman's job" as opposed to a "man's job"?

As much as it pains me to say this, and I'm sorry ladies, but the ones calling these men lazy and even 'sissy's' are mostly women. When you call a man that chooses to be the home keeper of a family lazy and sissy-like, are you truly insulting yourself and the job you're "supposed" to be doing according to the norms?

To be fair to the ladies however, some say that they prefer their husbands staying home. They would much rather worry about a good'ol 9-5 then have to keep the home nice and tidy all day, everyday. And the truth of the matter is, that keeping a home clean and organized, especially when their are kids involved, is definitely worthy of being called a "man's job".
In my opinion, we all really need to re-evaluate the standards of what we expect from men and women as far as occupation goes.

2. If You're a Man, it's Okay to be Overweight, but if You're a Woman, it's Disgusting!

I'd like to start off by saying that this double standard is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my entire life. However, it is very common for us to hear this dialogue:

Man: I feel like I'm gaining weight.
Woman: So do I, but for you it doesn't matter because you're a man!

When did it become okay for men to walk around with beer bellies the size of beer kegs and not okay for women to walk around with a few extra pounds? I know this sounds very cliche, but i must comment on an event that happened about a month ago. At the MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spears took the stage noticeably carrying around some extra luggage. Immediately, the media responded with calling her fat, but was this true at all? I don't think so. If Britney Spears had been a man dancing around on-stage with a few extra pounds, no one would have even said a word.

It is not okay for us to apply different "weight" rules to men and women. And besides that, who gave someone the right to decide what marking on the weight scale makes someone "overweight" or not?

Double Standards Concerning Men and Women in Relationships:
1. Men Dating Younger Women is Acceptable but for Women to Date Younger Men is Ridiculous

When an older man tells his buddies that he's dating a younger woman, he is automatically praised for accomplishing this "feat". However, when a woman is seen dating a younger man, everyone assumes that this woman is acting as a "mom" to the younger man.

As human beings, we automatically see this relationship as soley sexual, and ignore the fact that we are being very judgemental. I really don't think it's fair to refer to these women as "cradle rockers" or any such title. Everyone has the right to love, and if we're not going to get on the cases of older men dating younger women, then we shouldn't get on these older women's cases either.

2. It's More Acceptable for a Woman to Commit Adultery than For a Man to do the Same

I know, I know, all of the women reading this just let out a deep sigh. But the fact of the matter is that the above statement is true. While adultery at any level is horrible and should not be tolerated, it seems to be "less of a big deal" when it's the woman or "the damsel in distress" who does it.

When a man commits adultery, people constantly see it as his fault. We constantly hear things such as: He wasn't satisfied because he was greedy or, He's always been that way, she should have known. The man always gets blamed for being dissatisfied with his wife, but is it really that he's greedy, or is that his wife is just simply half-assing her way through marriage? A marriage takes two people, and if one of them is too consumed with something outside the marriage, then one should expect the other to do the same. It's a simple fact of life.

However, when a woman cheats on her husband, everyone quickly blames the husband again. Do we see the pattern here? We all see this woman as a "damsel in distress" who just simply couldn't take the pressures of commitment and then we make bold statements on how complicated a woman is and the fact that she has "needs". And as for her satisfaction, we constantly say things like: She was never "in-love" with her husband anyways.

So this begs for the question. Why is it that a woman's dissatisfaction with her husband causes us to have sympathy for her, but the dissatisfaction of a man in his wife causes us to feel anger towards him?

Now, to completely change the topic before my female reader's burn me at the stake, let's discuss:

Double Standards Concerning Race
1. Minority Racial Groups can lead assaults (verbal and physical) on Majority Racial Groups, but for this to Happen Vice-Versa is Unacceptable

Before I give my two-cents on the above mentioned topic, I do realize that this is a touchy subject for most people, so I'll try not to insult you with the things I'll say. With that said, I would like to state that racism is horrible. As a matter of fact it is one of the most disgusting things in this world and especially in this country. And though many of us state that racism in this country is over, we all know that that is not true.

When we hear the word racism, we automatically think of Caucasians being racist towards African Americans and other colored people. But, just in case you didn't know, this road goes both ways.

Everyone and their mother made a big deal when about a year ago, a certain comedian made some racial slurs from the stage. However, I believe that the real problem here was that the person making the slurs was part of the majority racial group. He was seen as an oppressor. But say he would have been part of the minority group, we would have simply said: He's only speaking out of spite because of all the years he has spent being oppressed.

By stating the above, I am not trying to defend this comedians actions in anyway, but I am saying that if you're willing to dish out racial slurs whenever you're having a bad day or feeling "oppressed," be ready to take some slurs coming back your way.

However, think about it, if some of us just stopped being racist, maybe the rest will follow suit. So, I challenge you. The next time you feel you're about to spit out a racial slur, bite you're tongue, and one by one, I know we can change things.

2. People Within a Minority Race Group being able to call eachother Derogatory Names but when someone outside their Group does the same it's Viewed as Racism

Why is it that we believe that racism can only be black-on-white or white-on-black or whatever it may be? Have you ever heard of black-on-black or white-on-white racism? Not only does it exist, bit it occurs in the most blatant manners possible.

We constantly hear people within the black and latino groups call eachother by the "N" word and the "S" word. However, most people who use the words don't even know that they mean. In my opinion, if you're willing to call someone within your own race something as horrible as that, then you are only opening the door for others to do the same. I like to call this intra-racism.

This goes hand in hand with the fact that if women call eachother whores and sluts, it only opens the door for men to do the same to them.

People who use racial slurs within their own race are just doing it because they feel as though they are entitled to do it because "they've lived through the same things". I strongly disagree with this. By someone saying that they have lived through the same things as someone of their same race, they are only categorizing themselves. The fact that we belong to the same race, does not mean that we have lived through, even remotely, the same things.

Like I said before, this over-generalization that minority groups are using to refer to themselves is only allowing for other groups to refer to them in the same way.

Closing Statement- I do realize that I will be getting a lot of heat from this posting but that's not the reason why it was written. The purpose is to make the readers think and truly evaluate what it is that they're doing with their judgement calls.

P.S. This post took a while for me to write and I couldn't have done it without my wonderful source Miss Adasis. Thanks!

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