The other day The Quad received a message from the Victorian era asking for its mentality back. Interestingly enough, we did not need an explanation; we knew exactly what it was about. The Victorian era proposed a mentality in which men were able to enjoy sexual activities, but women were expected to reject sexuality and anything related to it. This is it broken down into it simplest parts; however, in modern terms, we can call this the double standard. The double standard proposes that sex for men is the norm and unquestionable, but if women partake in sexual activity, they are “easy.” Even though we live in the 21st century and both women and men partake in sexual activities freely, the mentality still exists.
Although there are no billboards and newscasts blatantly forcing men to be bold and assertive in their sexual conquests, society is threaded with the underlying tone that men are expected to not only pursue women sexually, but to see this as their only objective; any other activity like talking or showing affection is superfluous. Women, conversely, are no longer bound to staying home and waiting for their significant other patiently in order to acquiesce.
In fact, the February issue of the Stall Seat Journal addressed women and men’s sexual habits-dividing the page into precautions for men and women. There should no longer be a division. We should all try to be conscientious of our actions in the same exact way.
Men should allegedly be rational, devoid of emotion and apparently, they think about sex, what is it now, every six seconds? That faulty statistic is another product of the double standard. Everyone has heard this “statistic,” and consequently, the double standard has once again done its job in convincing people of a “fact” that is not even founded in truth. Have you ever seen the real document that analyzed that information? Furthermore, women probably think about sex just as much as men do-if not more. Does this make women easy? No, it makes them human. If a man does not want to pursue sexual activity immediately and he may actually want to have a conversation, does this negate any quality of his masculinity? No, it indicates that he has a thought process.
Now, we could blame the media for violently perpetuating the archaic maxims stated in the first three paragraphs. We could even admonish our colleagues for encouraging this behavior. Or, we could do something bold ourselves and instead of succumbing to the stereotypes and convincing ourselves that these expectations define our woman and manhood, we could eliminate them. Yes, by taking small steps we can actually provide a wholesome culture for posterity, and even ourselves. How are we going to do that? Let’s all stop being sexual. Wrong. That would mean we would have to stop being functioning human beings. What we have to do is come to terms with our behavior by addressing this question: Where do our expectations come from? The idea of sexuality is critical to the topic of the double standard because it resonates so closely to who we are as people in general. Sexuality is not limited to just the physical; it is inclusive of who we are as students, friends, family and potential leaders.
By endorsing equality in our lifestyles and by not expecting men and women to act, say or think one way, we get to know people for who they are and not for what we think they should do.
So, by our undertaking the challenge to expel outdated and useless maxims, we can only produce a higher regard for humans in general-man or woman.
We do not have to return that call. Our actions are the reply.