Gender Double Standards

This, and I repeat this is not addressing all women, rather this is the summation of what I've experienced as a male.

This is not some misogynistic rant, nor is this a rant against conceptual feminism but rather the acknowledgment that there are double standards that exist in society which women much like men contribute to. In a recent news blooper on KTLA due to the fires here in California, a man without a shirt who was told to evacuate his home, was called over by a reporter to express his opinion on the situation and the man said:

"Hey you're hot, would you like to go out some time?"

Now, we can all speculate that this man's actions although abruptive and non-sequitor in fashion and not to mention brash was harmless. The reporter doing her duty, informed the man that they were live and she wanted to get his opinion regarding the situation with the fire. Now, the issue was not the reporter's actions, the issue was the subsequent responses (mostly from women) regarding the man's behavior not to mention "how fat he was."

I think I've read over 50 responses on the KTLA forums regarding the man whose bold move to ask the reporter out on live television from women who called the man "fat" that he "needed to put on a shirt on" and that "his looks not to mention his behavior was uncalled for." Now in a society which is materialistic, and pre-judges based on external appearence one has to wonder whether or not would women have the same reaction if the reporter was an attractive male who called over an obvious over weight women who abruptly asked the man out and who in return brushed her off in the same fashion--or to make it more interesting made an indirect remark about the way she looked.

This is just one example of some reactions that I find to be a double standard but what about others?

Well as a child I recalled that boys never hit girls and later on in life as a man I was taught that men never hit women. But what about the case of the Cleveland bus driver who was spat on by the intoxicated woman? who, I might add, was also driving a bus full of passengers. Not only was her verbally assaulted but he was also physically assaulted. The passengers who I assume based on the video were young laugh and giggled as the two went back and forth and all of a sudden things got real when the bus driver finally couldn't deal with it and uppercut the young woman. Then all of a sudden in the video, someone yelled out "that's a female!"

So as you can see it seems when appropriate, a woman's gender can be used as a cop out when a man treats her exactly the same way as other men. I am willing to go a step further and argue that when it seems convenient to some women, they use their gender as an excuse TO NOT BE TREATED EQUALLY. The same can be argued when it comes to the social infrastructure of men and women in society.

In some facets of society men can't ride buses or take public transportation because a man is supposed to have a car. Or a man cannot live at home with his parents at an older age, or a man cannot indulge in video game activity but when it comes to women, it is ok for women to not have transportation or to put in for gas money or, to not have a decent job. It seems that society has developed this stigma of men and women but it would seem that the scales are favoring one gender slightly over the other.

Need I mention child support and the biased judicial system????

I think its time that some women including feminist acknowledge that there are independent social double standards independent of patriarchal influence.