Online Identity: Women's Sexual Double Standard

The issue being addressed is woman’s participation in applying double standards culturally set up by men to one another in the form of slut shaming. Women are internally persecuting one another and basing one another’s status on such with a disregard for any other social structural roles held in society. Furthermore, this judgment

In the book, Slut!—Growing up Female with a Bad Reputation by Leora Tanenbaum, she collects a multitude of testimonies from women who have been subjected to sexual harassment, physical abuse, rape, incest and slut-bashing from all ethnicities and locations around the globe. One astonishing truth approaches you at the beginning of the book. Tanenbaum enters a table that shows the positives and negatives of being a sexually active man and a sexually active woman, unfortunately the truth is absolutely ludicrous. The table states a total of two positives of being a sexually active woman; hot and sexy. On the contrary, it states three negatives for sexually active men, compared to the twenty-eight negatives for sexually active women. This list consists of names from “slut” and “Jezebel” all the way to “prostitute.”

The Dangers of Double Standards Many movies, TV shows, or films in society today portray the double standard with men and woman’s sexuality, shine light on the negative stereotypes, and show many double binds and gender blurs we see in our society every day. An example of a film that portrays every single one of these concepts is the movie Easy A, which takes place in Ojai California. This movie tells the story of a young teenage girl named Olive, who ultimately gets pressured by her best friend into lying about her sexual activities and promiscuity. Told from Olives point of view in a documentary, Olive explains how her world gets flipped upside down when being pressured by her best friend about her sexual activities over the weekend, goes from a little white lie to a massive rumor that ultimately spread like wildfire around her whole high school. As a result of this, Olive becomes the center of attention, talk of the school, and ultimately falls victim to her own rumor.

Jessica Valenti’s 2009 novel, The Purity Myth, explains how “America’s obsession with virginity is hurting young women,” by citing and explaining just some of the infinite excuses behind this theory. As a writer, Jessica Valenti has written multiple other books regarding women, double standards, and the essentials of feminism. In other books like “Full Frontal Feminism (2007),” and “Yes Means Yes (2008),” Valenti has a strong reputation to stand up for women and women’s rights. In her newest novel, “Sex Object: a Memoir (2016),” Valenti tells accounts of how male sexuality is not seen as vulgar as women’s.

The theory being tested in the article is that women participate in slut shaming as a way for them to distance or separate themselves from other women. The reason they separate themselves is a way for women to categorize other women into different statuses and a way for themselves to maintain their own status. The status classes women are categorized in are linked to the social class they are a part of. Slut shaming among women is not necessarily based on their sexual acts, but of the way they act as a woman. The theory also states that slut shaming is also a result of male dominance and female submission. The slut label was created by men due to a double standard created by society. The double standard is that men are expected to act upon their sexual desires regardless of being in a relationship or having any emotional connection with the person they’re engaging that sexual act with all while women are only allowed to participate in sexual activities if they are in a loving and committed relationship. However, if

This article explores the sexual health implications the sexual double standard can have on young black women in the U.S. The HIV rate for black women is between 4-20 times as high as the rate for other ethnic groups is a result of the sexual double standard due to men having concurrent sexual relationships because they feel powered to do so. This weakens women’s health because they become infected with these diseases which can lead to so many health issues. The sexual double standard expects women to have little sexual knowledge of themselves which limits their agency. It explains the intersectionality of black women and how the sexual double standard is traced back through history to slavery and racial inequality. In this sense, white women

In today’s society, it seems that there has been an increase in the word slut. Girls are depicted as either good girls or prudes that “save themselves till marriage” or bad girls or sluts who are very sexual and promiscuous. They are either labeled as prude or sluts, which are both derogatory terms. We have begun to take away the idea of someone being a victim, and this idea of victim blaming stops. Films have helped embed this within our culture. In horror movies women, are killed for having sex; in comedies, women are called sluts and whores for being too flirty. This has caused society to believe it is okay to call women sluts. Slut shaming in movies turns high schoolers into bullies and college men into perverts. This causes negative effects on all women. This also creates a rape culture that we have been hearing about in the news, dealing with main actors/actresses, movie producers, politicians. Women are not allowed to be sexual human being, so that’s when they are labeled as sluts and men use that idea of them being a slut as their chance to rape a women and victim blame the women for being sexual.

Presently an ongoing turmoil between women is the insulting and shaming of one another’s sexual tendencies which have been inflicted upon society by the misogynist double standards imposed by men. In doing so, women are belittled in their slut shaming and are therefore degraded and neglected in their social life. Collectively Elizabeth A. Armstrong; Laura T. Hamilton; Elizabeth M. Armstrong; and J. Lotus Seeley composed an article, ‘ ' 'Good Girls ' ': Gender, Social Class, and Slut Discourse on Campus’ in 2014 for Social Psychology Quarterly (p. 100-122), utilizing observations on social psychology, gender, and culture to argue that undergraduate females exploit shaming to construct social barriers around status groups—along with overseeing sexual behavior and social relations among females. Within the study, the primary focus is what determines the right of the discrimination between supposed good girls and the promiscuous alongside how it functions in the select college females within a university dorm hall. Attention is also drawn to the fact that men are encouraged to have sexual activity in general whereas women are restricted to minor contact within relationships or face the detrimental judgement of society.

It is common in the united states that women, especially younger women, are in a bind where neither sexual activity nor sexual inactivity is all right. (p.11) Women are viewed as being affiliated to men, and society judges women’s characters and personality just through sexuality. If a woman chooses to have sex, she will be labeled as a “slut” or “unprincipled”. On the other hand, if a woman refuses to have sex, she will be called “man-hater”

One of the main and most discussed double standards when it comes to gender is the fact that men are praised for being promiscuous, while women are put down and called names. This double standard goes way back in the societal memory. Evolutionary psychologists suggest that these gender differences have resulted from males’ and females’ different reproductive capacities. A woman can go have sex with a man, but she then will be limited to carrying his baby for those nine months. In the meantime, the man can go out and have sex with many women, and have all of

In the essay by Laura Hamilton and Elizabeth Armstrong Double Binds and Flawed Options it is said that “...while men are expected to desire and pursue sexual opportunities regardless of

The movie Pretty Woman has raised some eyebrows on the idea of feminism and showing glamor to prostitution and I disagree about the glamorizing prostitution, the movie just gave prostitution a possible happy ending. “Sex is a designation based on biology, whereas the subject of gender is complex and broad in itself. The definition of masculine is task oriented. The definition of feminine is relationship oriented. So you could have a masculine woman or a feminine male. Gender is socially and psychologically constructed. In most cases, sex and gender go together; most men are primarily masculine and most women are primarily feminine. In some cases, however, a male is more feminine than most men, or a woman is more masculine than most women.” The different views concerning gender can be fascinating to some. For example, there is not a gender that is better than the other, but rather men and women have different focuses than one another. So another example would be, something that could be extremely important to me, but to someone else it may be not even something significant enough to take a second glance at. Each person is different than another human individual, which is why we are all individuals. Individuals are unique and differentiate which explains so many different views points and cultures. In the movie Pretty Woman, a prostitute Vivian, as played by Julia Roberts, and a wealthy businessman, Edward, as played by Richard

Sexuality has long been a key concern of feminists and egalitarians. Most notably, they have long insisted that female sexuality is no different than male sexuality and that a woman should have the exact same right to choose not to marry, and instead engage in casual sex while pursuing a rewarding career that will secure her a (supposedly) much better future than the lifestyles of past generations of women afforded them. What has long been a major proponent of patriarchal societies is the inhibition on female sexuality. The “double standard” in sexuality is to

In her article, ““Feminist Criticism” from Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide (2006), author Lois Tyson endorses the idea of “bad girls” versus “good girls” in the world today. She feels that people view feminism through only two different lenses; the positive and also the negative perspectives of women. The norm of the “bad girls” is that they “violate patriarchal norms in some way: they’re sexually forward in appearance or behavior, or they have multiple sex partners” (Tyson 3). In other words, Tyson is acknowledging that these women are also known as “whores” or “sluts”. This is the only way these women are looked at through these lenses. Along with this, Tyson also explains that since they violate patriarchal norms, “‘bad

If a man has sex…..HE’S.A.STUD.a BOSSSSSS,a KING.” That whole part was showing how we can treat women just by the small things she does but when it comes to a guy he is praised and if its a girl she is shamed.Another quote from the text “If a woman even Talk about sex openly….she is shamed! But if a man talks or RAPS freely about all the women (or more commonly used “bitches”/”hoes”...how lovely) he’s had...he is regaled.”this statement is how most women are labeled and are looked at differently than men.This is the biggest part of why feminism exists and how there have been so many feminists that take act of it all around the