Double Standards at Their Finest

“Now anticipating being on display to a roomful of spectators, they suddenly realize how it feels to be judged as women routinely are, sized up by another pair of eyes.” (174). Women are endlessly being criticized for the way they look, from head to toe. It is something we are accustomed to so much, that even we, ourselves, look in the mirror and try to reshape our body and attempt at achieving perfection every time we walk out the door. In Susan Bordo’s, The Male Body she brings up a film The Full Monty, in which men were attempting to prep themselves to get scrutinized like a female would. A man felt “a little chubby” and did not continue on with the competition. I’m not sure about how in depth these evaluations but if you line up a group of girls they are used to the scrutiny of others. I’m sure there breast size would be something to come up. How perky they are and are they too big, or too small? Funny thing is, how many times have you heard society scrutinizing the size of a male’s penis? A better question may be, how many times have you seen society allowing a penis to be seen? It seems like a sick double standard. The women versus men double standard has been around for literally centuries. In my Women and Literature class I have been learning more about the double standards as far back as the 1700’s. Women are expected to be virginal, but seductive, and educated but not smarter than a man, as well as they should be scrutinized but never make judgments. Bordo states “getting caught in moments of fantasy are shameful” for a woman (172). On the other hand you have men exploiting women they sleep with and being open about even their filthiest fantasies.
It makes me wonder when the standards of living of men and women came about. Bordo commented about Greek Gods in The Male Body and that really struck me and stood out. So all the way back in ancient Greece we have this epitome of a “ able body”. We have these statues that were carved hundreds of years ago and they were symbols of perfection. We have those representations because we have ads with those carved statues, they are just called something along the lines of “Abercrombie/Gucci models”. The males in these ads are still deemed as powerful and they center of attention, therefore they keep their masculinity. In the adds we saw in class, if men and women were in the ad the woman would be almost “relying” on the male physically. The “beauty” of a man compared to the “beauty” of a woman is completely warped in comparison. Beauty for a man is strength and grit and if that is seen in a woman she is deemed “too big”. or “too strong”. The definition for beauty for a female is “perfection”. I can’t go through one entire day without seeing or hearing something that is telling me how I can better myself. Something has to give. In a world as advanced as ours, how is it different sexes can’t have the same standards for living, let alone the same standards of scrutiny?