The Double Standard

Something strange has been happening in our culture the past few years. More than likely, you have yet to notice its surge because its subtle and incremental advancements. It's politically incorrect to ridicule women. However, male-bashing is fair game. If a man belittles a woman, it could become a lawsuit; when women belittle men, it's a Hallmark card.

On the Today show, Katie Couric once asked a jilted bride, in reference to the groom who jilted her, "Have you considered castration as an option?" There was no storm of protest. Imagine the reaction if Matt Lauer had asked a jilted groom, "Wouldn't you just like to rip her uterus out?" (John Leo, "Mars to Venus: Back Off," U.S. News and World Report, 7 May 1998, 16)

An American Greeting Cards card once said on the front, "Men are always wining about how we are suffocating them," with the inside punch line "Personally, I think if you hear them wining, you're not pressing hard enough on the pillow." What do you think the response would have been if the card had joked about killing women? (Ibid)

I think men are old enough to take care of themselves. What is disturbing is the effect this societal shift has on developing boys. From the deluge of politically correct nonsense that is heaped on them, they come to believe there is something wrong with their God-given traits of competition, assertiveness, and leadership. The feminist agenda attempts to show women as powerful, courageous, and indomitable, while men are weak, emotional, and easily manipulated. Hollywood is in the feminists' back pocket. Just look at the movie "Titanic." James Cameron (the director) would have you believe the men on board the Titanic were cowardly and misogynous, pushing their way onto the lifeboats at the expense of women and children. The truth, however, is anything but. While 74% of the women passengers were rescued, only 20% of the men survived.* You would never hear this from Hollywood or Hallmark, because that would make men look brave and honorable. God forbid men look like leaders. We can't have that happen.

In the entertainment industry, the new heroines are aggressive and calculating. They have come to be all those traits they once scorned in men. They lie, they spy, they cheat, they plot revenge, they treat sex casually, and then they slither away. Occurring more frequently at present is that common scene where a beautiful woman coldcocks a tough-looking guy with a single blow. I'm sure most women like to see this. What they don't understand is that this portrayal has the potential of becoming counterproductive for women. When girls are shown holding their own against men twice their size, it undermines the rationale for the prohibition on violence of any sort against females.

When will we learn that role reversals and sensitivity training have done nothing except create animosity in the mind of the opposite sex? When are we going to notice the double standard? I suppose we'll demand a stop sign at the intersection after the first fatal accident.

*British Parliamentary Papers, Shipping Casualties (Loss of the Steamship "Titanic"), (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1912), 42. Those that died: 1,352 men, 109 women, and 52 children. Those that lived: 338 men, 316 women, and 57 children. Incidentally, 20% was the survival rate for the first wave of Marines attacking Tarawa. Furthermore, 58,226 names are etched into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Eight of those names are women (statistics from the National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/vive/memorial/wall.htm). 650,000 U.S. men have lost their lives fighting in America's wars since the Revolution. 800 women have lost their lives in the same-430 during World War Two.