When it comes to how men and women are treated as sexual beings in the United States, the sheer hypocrisy of many men (and women) is saddening.
It is not only common amongst the general population but rampant in the judiciary system as well.
We recently saw Brock Turner, a young athlete from a well-off family and college receive only six months in prison for sexually abusing a woman.
This is not a one-off incident. Judges like Aaron Pesky are known to dish out lightweight sentences favoring the defendant over sexual abuse victims.
In the prestigious Institute of MIT, one in every six women has been a victim of rape.
Yet many men are blind to the plight of their counterparts.
The far-right speaker of the house, Dennis Hastert, who is a devoted Catholic and a member of the Christian Coalition and National Right to Life Committee is now a convicted pedophile.
A trend or hypocrisy that is alarmingly common, especially in the far right or conservative men.
Take for example Scott DesJarlais, who is a congressman and voted in favor of the infamous 20-week ban, and advertises himself as 100 percent pro-life.
However, when his ex-wife decided to have two abortions in varying terms, he was all eager.
So was the case when he had an affair with a patient who became pregnant, Mr. DesJarlais was quick to terminate the pregnancy.
But when it comes to the reproductive rights of millions of other American women, that’s where he draws the line. He co-sponsored an anti-abortion bill.
Because according to these old, rich and white men, debating on women’s reproductive rights, it’s not about choice, it is about saving a human life.
Unless that human life becomes an issue in progressing their own political career and motives, then they are merely a clump of cells.
Another recent example of stunning sexual hypocrisy against women is the spin-off series of the popular dating show, The Bachelorette.
The Bachelorette of the season, Kaitlyn confessed to having sex in one of the promos of season 11, and all hell broke loose.
It’s almost as if she has conducted some sort of impurity that makes her beneath others, and unworthy of love.
One of the male contestants even become the stand-in voice of the audience and tell her that her intentions are questionable, and it might be she simply wants to make out with the men contestants in the show.
Of course, Kaitlyn is not given a chance to counter that.
No such questions arose in the sets of The Bachelor, where a man surrounds himself with twenty beautiful women.
His sexual history and intentions do not get questioned like Kaitlyn’s.
Whereas it is obviously a man above 28 years of age must have some sort of sexual history, to begin with, he is worthy of love.
And love is what the audience believes in, not sex.
At least not when it is sex performed by women.
This is coming from American adults, where one in every three people say that they do not believe in premarital sex.
Whereas when it comes to losing virginity, it happens around the average age of 17, with nine out of ten committing premarital sex.
This double standard is also applied in the world of adult toys.
Where as men don’t need to feel bad about owning sex toys to satisfy themselves in new and exciting ways, women who use sex toys are immediately thought of as being dirty and not lady-like.
And that is just sad.
Until we start changing all of these various aspects of sexual hypocrisy, the ideals of feminism will never fully be realized.
Every one of us should take responsibility in changing the stereotypes and questioning the nature behind various judgments, and whether gender is involved.
