Twitter: Double Standards in Book One: The Not So Daily Briefs 2014

This is much longer than something I’d normally put here; but it relates to my last post in this “book” so it felt appropriate for this location. One thing we can do to further egalitarian views and/or create a society where victims are all shown proper respect/justice is to examine and deal with some of our double standards.

This photo is clearly staged and, for some, has an element of cuteness. However… just like with the teacher sex scandals… gender plays WAY too big a role. When an attractive older female teacher has sex with an underaged male student… society acts as though the situation is night-and-day from an attractive older male teacher having sex with an underaged female student. This needs to change. EITHER we accept that both students (female and male) were willing participants OR (what is more likely) we learn to understand that both students (male and female) were underaged children being taken advantage of by someone of authority. Gender should not play such a big role in how we view statutory rape.

This one boils my biscuits (if you’ll pardon a nonsensical colloquialism). This issue even made it into a National Magazine once and… as fumingly insanely rage angry as it made me… the expert they interviewed furthered double standards. SHE (because of course it was) explained that Barbie is different from He Man and GI Joe because (and I quote) “Little girls play with Barbie and imagine being her when they grow up. They want the cars, the mansions, the family, and the measurements and that isn’t attainable. Boys play with GI Joe and He-Man and it is all fantasy. They see it as a fictional character that they can pretend to be but they don’t internalize the imagery.” WHAT?! How can you even guess at a statement like that? Plus… doesn’t that suggest that you are calling boys smarter, or at least suggesting that they are more capable separating play from reality? Because… I think you’re dumb! Little boys grow up and see that we are supposed to be Hercules, He-Man, Superman, Troy Aikman, Dan Marino, Brett Favre… we’re told time after time that physical strength, conventional attractiveness, and an unhealthy distance from our emotions is “ideal”.... yeah, I think that there might be issues that affect boys and girls the same and this might be one of them!

IMAGE NOT FOUND
… bother, I really wish I could find a shareable image of this one. WORD PICTURE: Image One- Comic Book Style picture of a skinny but attractive female and a heavy set man. Image One Comments- “Virgin fantasy. Either he has a lot of money, she doesn’t have any brains, or both. Disgusting… this is sick, he should pick up some weights and she should have some self-respect!” Image Two- Comic Book Style picture of a skinny but attractive male and a heavy set woman. Image Two Comments- “You go girl! Don’t let a man bring you down. You go after whatever man you want, you deserve it! Don’t lose a pound!”

RE: Again… wish I had the image to share. Hopefully by now you realize where my commentary is heading. EITHER a fat man/skinny girl combination is acceptable and shouldn’t be talked down about OR a fat woman/skinny man combination is equally unacceptable and should be talked down about. Clearly… I would prefer the former to the latter. The long and the short of it is: We need to be nice to each other. Perhaps the two individuals are childhood friends who fell in love, then one of the pair put on weight due to a disease/prescription/lifestyle change. NO people should be judged based on their size vs. their partner’s size. The fact that there are gender lines attached to this just makes the whole thing more frustrating. The argument “Curves are beautiful” doesn’t have a male equivalent… we have “Shape up, fatty!”

This could be almost anything in today’s world. Fifty Shades of Grey, Justin Bieber, Twilight, anything. I think it is awesome that women are taking back the field of sexuality. No person should have to ever feel ashamed of their sexual preferences (provided they do not break the law). However, if “Fifty Shades of Grey” were about a dominant FEMALE and a submissive MALE; men would protest because the main character wasn’t manly, women would protest because of the unfavorable depiction of strong women, the whole thing would be written off as offensive, trashy smut. Instead of one of the best selling books of 2011. The above picture? If men were aggressively freaking out like that for teenaged girls… they’d be called pervs. Now… the argument (THERE IS A GOOD ONE) that asks what is the difference between the above picture and grown men loving Britney Spears? That is a good question. The only response I have.... is the public nature. A 50 year old man that freaks over a 16 year old pop singer is going to be shunned and chastised for public displays of that… when it is women, it is acceptable?

Now… none of this is an effort to diminish the real struggle of women. There are a lot of truly evil men in this world that say terrible things about female cosplayers and I support anyone that says “My curves make me beautiful.” But, as with everything, if we are going to struggle for a more equal world- we need to be able to point to these things and say “These are unacceptable.” If Barbie is harmful to little girls, He Man is harmful to little boys; if a 50 year old male teacher is a bad guy for going after a high school student- a 50 year old female teacher is a bad guy for going after a high school student; if it isn’t pervy or gross for Cougars to exist, it shouldn’t be pervy or gross for Older Men being interested in Younger Women… that is all I’m saying.

Last updated January 05, 2016