Just because double standards proliferate our everyday lives does not make it okay.
People see examples where men and women are treated or judged accordingly. But a glaring disparity becomes evident when the gender roles swap.
When males fly, they are "Superman" whereas, when females fly they are a witch.
But doubles standards aren't limited to sexism.
People shared their examples of the phenomena when Redditor piano_043 asked:
"What double standards annoy the sh*t out of you?"
Rules
Sure, there are exceptions to certain rules, but where do you draw the line when the person of authority setting the rules frequently breaks them?
School Deadlines
"Professors who have strict deadlines but don't grade anything."
"I find it even more annoying in high school. The teacher will say 'I won't do X, because I have a life, and I don't want to use my free time on my weekend to do that'. Cool, fair enough. I get it, you work for the time you get paid for. But then ... 'You had all weekend to work on this!'. Like, wtf, is the weekend time for the school system or not? You can't choose one when you want it, and another when you don't."
Crime & Punishment
"people stealing millions get no or less jail time than someone who stole couple of dollars"
All Talk
"Preaching about saving the environment but doing the absolute bare minimum to change it."
Smoke Breaks
"If I took as many extra breaks at work as a smoker does, I'd get fired."
"I had a job where this guy would go out every hour, on the hour for 5 minutes in an 8 hour shift every day of the week to smoke."
"That's over 3 hours of extra break time per week I wasn't getting as a non smoker."
"That's over 173 hours of extra break time per year I wasn't getting as a non smoker."
"That's like an extra week of paid vacation per year in just smoking cigarettes."
Culture Wars
"Cancel culture double standards. Certain people have been canceled for saying something stupid like 10 years ago, and yet somehow Chris Brown is still a successful musician even though he did far worse than most people society has 'canceled.' It doesn't make any sense to me."
Awards
"The Oscars. It seems like sometimes, it's awarded to an actor because 'it's their time or they are overdue' or just based on popularity or a makeup award, while other times it's 'this is the performance of the year and no one else is worthy.' It should go to the best acting performance all the time, not just because people think it's this actor's best, only, or last chance at winning the award."
Appearance Guidelines
"School dress codes. The horror that a females bra strap is slightly visible!!!!!!!!!"
Sexism
When men can't catch a break when in the presence of kids.
Father Time
"Aww look, dad is babysitting while mom has a day off"
"No I'm NOT. I am the father and I am wanting to spend time with my children when I have time available. That's not babysitting. That's being a caring, loving, responsible father."
"Demeaning On All Sides"
"This one drives both me and my husband nuts. He's being a parent. Also, he gasp actually wants to spend time with the small human we chose to create. The flipside is also frustrating - he's a superhero or babysitter when he takes her to the park, but I'm a woman so I should just magically be able to handle all her needs and God forbid I take 10 seconds on my phone when I "should be" having quality time with my kid (never mind the fact that dad's right there and she's really focused on the leaves at the moment)."
"It's so insidious and demeaning on all sides."
Popularity
"Having to act differently around kids just because I'm a guy. I work at a camp and a dance class, and both my senior counselor and dance instructor gave me talks about how to act around kids."
"I'm 6'1" and I have a beard and long hair, and for some reason kids love me. And I really like playing with kids. But I can't do very much with them. The female staff can hug the kids and hold their hands when walking with them, no problem. But then the kids want to hug me and hold my hand, and I can't do it because I'm too big and scary and I'll look like a creep. So it kinda hurts when I can't play around with kids just because I'm a guy."
"Also, this all happened before [the virus], when hugging and holding hands was not an issue. Just to clarify."
Play Time
"If women make faces or try to play with random kids it cute, but when men want to play with random kids they are seen as predators."
Making Memories
"And the women who think dads are creeps watching their next victim when they're just taking a photo of THEIR child having fun at the playground for memory's sake."
Girly Things
"Girl enjoys girly things - People: Oh you're so basic and not progressive. Girl enjoys traditionally masculine things - People: Oh, she's just trying to fit in with the men and she hates other women. Must be one of those 'not like other girls' girls. It's so frustrating. I feel every one of my hobbies is subjected to this extra layer of scrutiny and judgement."
Racism
Victims of harassment aren't always innocent of the same offense.
Being Asian
" Racism seems to only apply to black people. Growing up if you said a racial slur to a black student in school, you were in serious trouble. However you say a racial slur to me (south Asian) the teacher might tell you to cut it out. In the Army, no one dared say a racial slur or anything racist to a black soldier. That would end your career. However, racist 'jokes' and slurs were said to me on a daily basis. No one seemed to intervene. If I threatened to complain to EO they would probably stop, but then I'm on everyones sh*t list for being too sensitive and not being able to take a joke. However no one would ever even attempt this type of thing with the black soldiers."
False Claim
"I'm part Asian myself and one day a girl i knew was saying some pretty harsh stuff about the Chinese, i called her out on being kinda racist and she dropped the bomb 'Asians can't suffer racism, they ain't black' i was in complete shock at how someone could possibly have negative IQ and still trying to be smug."
Deportation Jokes
"the same thing happened with me and I'm Mexican. people were allowed to call me beaner and tell me I needed to be deported but somehow I was the one that always got in trouble for being upset."
One example I can't stand is the perception that men aren't allowed to cry because it's a sign of weakness.
This sexist view is deeply ingrained in my culture where the men in my father's generation were told to keep their sentimental emotions bottled up inside and that they should leave it up to the women to get emotional because "it's what they do."
The dangerous mentality screwed with my head in my formative years. If I ever had a moment of weakness and shed a tear, I felt extremely ashamed – which further plummeted me into confusion and despair.
So yeah, double standards suck.
@kileywrestling/Bluesky
