Double Standards
August 23, 2018
In elementary school, I was told for the first time that I needed to wear a bra because my teacher noticed that one of the boys kept staring at me, and I was distracting him. That shame that I felt still sticks with me today. In middle school, I’d get dress coded for wearing a tank top during the heat waves in Southern California, or for wearing shorts that didn’t reach my finger tips. I would be so confused when I’d look over and see all the boys playing basketball shirtless. Are my shoulders, and knees really that offensive? All of this so girls wouldn’t distract boys.
Well, why do we allow boys to freely look girls in that way from such a young age? Men sexualizing women is normalized in today’s society. Women should just cover up right? Wrong! Maybe if boys were taught to respect girls, then a middle school girl wearing a tank top wouldn’t be such a problem.
WOMEN NEED CHOICES! As a woman I should be able to decide if I want to wear a bra or not — without ANY judgement! Women should not feel obligated to shave! Whether a woman does or doesn’t shave should be completely up to her, not the preference of men.
“Hair, if it was not supposed to be there would not be growing on our bodies in the first place. We are at war with what comes naturally to us,” said poet Rupi Kaur.
How does one justify comparing two people, a man and a woman, both with hair under their arms, and saying that the man is perfectly fine, but the woman ought to be ashamed of herself?
We need to change the minds of men, rather than changing the clothes on women — Mailan Carr
Being a woman is made to be so much more difficult than need be. Why is it that men can express themselves as sexual beings, like the vast majority of humans are, but women expressing their sexuality and femininity is frowned upon? The words used for sexually active men are compliments and the words used for women who do the same thing are pejoratives. People neglect to consider how damaging the foul names placed upon women for acting as human beings can be. Here we are again. Comparing two people, a man and a woman, acting in the same way, the man is praised by his peers, and even family, and the woman is shamed by society. Really think about that. Their simply is no justification. End double standards.
