Before every storm, there lies a tranquil electricity where warm, moist air fuels the storm that approaches. A calmness transcends upon the land alongside anticipation, knowing something is on the way. That storm is tied to the double standards that are constantly arising, feeling the intensity of the string of criticizing words against women, when men do the same actions without reaction. The storm is a tug of war, women fighting to earn an ounce of respect that men automatically get, while women are just trying to get through the storm of society. There is always a calm before the storm of society.
There are clear double standards that exist in the world today. Taylor Swift fans are obsessive, but when men like an artist it’s passionate. When girls like football or sports it’s because they want to date a player, but boys watch sports for entertainment. In Swift’s words, “A man does something, it’s strategic. A woman does the same thing, it’s calculated. A man is allowed to react. A woman is only allowed to overreact.” In the music industry, Swift dives into how criticisms are mainly reserved for women. If a man shares his experiences in writing, he’s brave. If a woman shares her experiences in writing, she’s oversharing and emotional. Swift, is hated by so many because ‘Watch out, she might release another song against her boyfriends,’ but no one says that about Shawn Mendes or any other male artist talking about the same relationship problems.
“I have watched women get criticized, measured up to each other, and picked at for their bodies, their romantic lives, their fashion,” Swift said in an interview. “Have you ever heard someone say about a male artist: ‘I really like his songs, but I don’t know what it is, there’s just something about him I don’t like.’”
Along with the double standards mentioned, our society is so broken that we are essentially programmed to accept the cards that women were dealt. Women worked hard to earn the right to vote, for our voice to be heard in all aspects of society and to be treated like humans. Women in America earned this right back in 1920 just to have the same prejudiced attitudes occur again and again. Today, we still fight the battle that feels pointless to a crowd that doesn’t want to listen in a harmful society.
“Men can be obsessed with Sydney Sweeney and Livvy Dunne, but when girls have celebrity crushes, it’s unrealistic and they need to come back to reality,” senior Kayla Dupree said.
Similarly, there is a reason “Barbie” was one of the most popular movies in 2023. “Barbie” really brought light to the pressure women face. There’s a certain doom that many women are forced to accept at a young age such as the fact that women aren’t always afforded the same freedoms and rights as men. People think you are less intelligent, you have to fit in this box, and you have to fight every obstacle and not to mention the sexism you face to be respected in career paths that weren’t “made for women.” Be this way, talk this way, walk this way, sit this way, act this way, don’t laugh too loud, don’t be too quiet around guests, eat this way; it has all been laid out for you in a rulebook that has to be followed. There are hundreds of different Barbies like President Barbie, Journalist Barbie and Doctor Barbie; Barbie can be anything and girls can be anything. In Barbie Land, it’s an accepted truth. At what point did you put away the Barbie doll and start thinking about how boys would perceive you? It wasn’t about experiencing innocence and nature and love. Women lose a sense of purpose because there becomes a priority of pleasing not only men but everyone else around you.
“Imagine a world where you can pursue your hobbies and the things that fill you with joy and be free of having to wonder if you look good doing it,” influencer and YouTuber Brittany Broski said.
In politics, many people believe that a woman wouldn’t be able to run a country because she would be controlled by her emotions, while a man could do a better job regardless of his past unjust actions. He gets to be lawless while she has to be flawless.
We have gotten to a point of insecurity with women where makeup has become so normalized where 12-year-old girls are shopping at Sephora and young girls are putting on tons of makeup to go to school. This could be for the simple act of having fun and being creative, but many women fall into a cycle of feeling “ugly” without that makeup if they don’t want to wear it for one day. However, makeup is makeup and each person views it differently.
“Many say that makeup is capitalizing on women’s insecurities, but at the end of the day, if it makes you feel good, then who cares about what other people think about you,” Dupree said.
The topic of makeup is different for each person, but many beauty standards that live in society today are unfair and unrealistic.
“Many people say you should embrace your natural beauty, but also when you don’t look perfect and you have pimples and wrinkles, society thinks you should be more professional and put more makeup on to look more put together,” senior Rebecca Roff said.
In regards to income, many women couldn’t have a bank account until the ‘70s, therefore not having the opportunity to accumulate generational wealth like men did. While women have risen and started corporations and become “girl bosses,” men run the biggest corporations still today with the help of having the time to build their wealth. Women are held to a lower standard than men and it’s a normalized preconceived expectation that men will always be wealthier than women. There is statistical proof that women get paid less creating a wage gap and an unequal opportunity based on gender. This gender wage gap hasn’t changed in the past two decades according to Pew Research Center, where in 2022 women earned 82% of what men earned. This is just another example of how our foundation of ideals, made by men, set up our broken rules.
“I don’t know why men say they have to do everything because they are the ones that decided that women couldn’t get jobs and women couldn’t fight in wars,” Roff said. “Really its their own fault for setting that system up.”
Society has gotten better compared to how it was in the past, but we have learned to self-sabotage ourselves into believing we are a problem that constantly needs to be fixed. You have to be everything to everyone and it’s such a universal experience, but it’s so isolating at the same time because no one talks about the weight women carry in all parts of our society. After work, most women have to clean and make dinner and take care of the kids, then do it over and over again. This cycle has to break.
“As women we hold ourselves to a pretty high standard and especially in comparison to other women,” senior Morgan Gates said “We want to achieve so much in ourselves, we can get insecure comparing ourselves, especially in adolescence”
All in all, the double standards and inequality with women compared to men is dramatically prominent in our society, even if we are blinded by doubt to see it. From gender wage gaps, double standards, beauty standards, and unequal treatment today, history is inevitably repeating itself. We cannot allow ourselves to have less rights than our grandmothers did. We are women and we are human.
