Search This Blog

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Even Feminists Fall Prey to the Double Standard

I think many of you know that I describe myself as a radical feminist, having written two award-winning papers about feminism for National History Day and getting published on feminist blogs. I try my best (and sometimes annoy myself with how politically correct I can get) to remain gender neutral and as feminist as I can be. However, even the best of us can fall prey to the double standard.

My mom and I saw a play, MazelTov Cocktail, a number of weeks ago. (Its run is over, but I would suggest it otherwise.) It was a cute play and we really enjoyed it, but our biggest complaint was that the female actor in the one-person show cursed a lot. "It just wasn't warranted," my mom complained. I nodded; it had seemed kinda icky that she cursed so much. It was in character that she cursed, and I understood why she did, but I couldn't help but think less of her for it.

A couple of weeks ago we saw another play called Defending the Caveman (which was clutching-your-side hilarious - at some points it got inappropriate, so only for 13+ audiences, but it was totally hilarious), a one-person show with a male actor. He often cursed in the play, but my mom and I shrugged it off. "He's a guy," we rationalized. My mom even mentioned MazelTov Cocktail. "When she cursed, it was inappropriate, but when he cursed, it was okay," she said.

It only hit me after we excused him for cursing that it was totally unfair!! How could we allow the man from Defending the Caveman to curse, but not the woman from MazelTov Cocktail? That wasn't fair - if I'm gonna think less of her for cursing, I have to think less of him too! I'm just perpetuating the double standard! How could I do that?

1 comment:

  1. I'm shocked! (Shocked, I tell you!) Yes, how COULD you do that! (Aren't double standards great?!)

    ReplyDelete