Double Standards Essay

762 Words2 Pages

For this “Fight for Justice Assignment”, I decided to fight for the elimination of double standards in the society. As a society, we tend to overlook those issues that are so apparent in our everyday lives such as stereotyping of men and women. At an early age, children are taught to behave, and act in a certain way according to their genders. For example, males are expected to show aggression, toughness, competitiveness, and dominance in interpersonal relationships, whereas the females attribute to behaviours such as passivity, emotionality and subordination in interpersonal relationships. (Dunn) (What Society Does to Girls pg 10-11) Often we see that double standards come into play to bring those who have stepped outside their typical roles back inside their gender roles. Double standard is defined by the Oxford University Press as, “a rule or principle which is unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups.” (Double Standard) With this being said, equality cannot be at its full potential with the existence of double standards hindering its growth. Double standards can be seen everywhere in relationships, businesses and even in advertisements.

Often we will hear that men are jerks and women are the victims as a result of a break up. (Top 10: Dating Double Standards) However, as humans we are so oblivious with the use of double standards, an example is when a men breaks up with a women there’s no reason why since she’s perfect. And when a women breaks up with a men it is seen as though the men is not good enough and that she deserves more. Nonetheless, as we surround ourselves with these standards, we tend to forget that relationships are a two way street and that fault cannot be placed heavily on one over ...

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...n the genders. In order to change society’s perception and social norms, communication and education is the key to removing double standards. At an early age children often see advertisements displaying little girls playing with dolls, while little boys play with action figures which leads them believing that this what is considered appropriate for each gender. However we tend to believe what we see, so by eliminating gender roles in advertisement double standards will less likely occur. An example of this can be seen in Australia, where Toys “R” US had announced that they will eliminate labelling of boys and girls toys in their catalogues so that both genders can play with the same toys. (O'Brien) By using mass media, we can educate people around the world that at the end of the day we are all humans despite our gender and that we need to treat each other equally.

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