It is no secret, that in our society there is a double standard between men and women. It can be seen in multiple aspects in our society; an example being, a man in a position of authority in a company and exerting himself by being assertive, is seen by most as a man just doing his job. But if a woman were in the exact same position and carrying herself in the exact same fashion, she would be seen as a "bitch" or overusing her power. Double standards also exist in instances where a group of people are fighting/lobbying for equal rights in some cases. If men are fighting for equal rights for a group of people they are usually seen to be activists, leaders, etc. But if women are fighting for the rights of other women, they are sometimes mistakingly called "feminists" and are told to know their role and not be encouraged to stand up for what they believe in. These are just a few examples of how double standards play a role in our society but the double standard I will analyze in this post is the double standard of men and women when it comes to sexual encounters.
Why is it that when a male is known to have a number of sexual encounters, he is "the man" and receives praise from his peers but when a woman has the same amount of more sexual encounters she is seen as a "slut" or a plethora of other negative slurs? If man or a woman have the same number of sexual partners at any given time, they both have an equal chance at infection or disease assuming that it is unprotected. Also, they are risking unintentional pregnancies with unprotected sex, anything that can go wrong for a women as a result from sex can just as well happen to a man, yet there is still this disparity when it comes to having multiple partners.
There is a multitude of sex-related concepts that used to be supported by most of society but are now seen to be outdated, but it is possible this particular double standard concept still lingers because of the images media promotes of men with multiple sex partners, and women with multiple sex partners. For example, Los Angeles rapper ScHoolboy Q has a radio single called "Man of The Year", where a good part of the lyrics are references to how women can't control themselves around ScHoolboy Q, contributing to the idea that he is the "Man of the Year". The complete annotated lyrics can be found here. You may also view the "Man of the Year" music video here. A lot of the hip hop radio stations prefer to play songs that carry these messages because they usually are ear candy to listeners but it is possible that subconsciously these messages are extending the life of this double standard.
Ab-Soul, a rapper originally from Carson, California, details a story of a double standard from the perspective of a young male possibly in his late teens and another perspective from a woman of the same age in his song "Double Standards" from his album "Control System". Ab-Soul highlights the irony in this double standard from a neutral point of view. The first verse details the point of view of the young man and how his friend group is taunting him and pressuring him into cheating on his long time girlfriend because going on dates makes him a "queer" and otherwise "soft". This is found in the lyric "His fellas in his ear, You acting like a queer, you going on dates we tryna get this cake!", meaning that while he is spending time with his girlfriend he instead should be out trying to find ways to make money with his friend. He goes on to the next verse and describes the same event from the perspective from the girl. In verse three, Ab-Soul goes on to the third verse to summarize society's view of sexually active girls by saying "See the moral of the story is, she a ho he a pimp. Old girl'll forgive her man but her girlfriend's cut off like Edward's hands", meaning that guys get the benefit of the doubt but girls are shunned and seen to be tainted from situations in the story Ab-Soul tells about. To see all the lyrics to "Double Standards" you can look here.
To conclude, it is entirely possible that media is having a huge effect on how society views sexually active females because media, music in this case, has a history of glorifying men and diminishing women.
I completely agree with your points about how there is a double standard in society when it comes to sexual encounters between men and women. The songs you used are great examples. Another song that I feel fits this topic is Don’t Tell Em by Jeremih (lyrics can be found here- http://genius.com/Jeremih-dont-tell-em-lyrics/). There is a part in the song where YG says “It’s some Twitter p***y I met on the Internet,” in which he is literally referring to a woman as “it.” I couldn’t imagine the amount of backlash a female artist would get if she were to say the same line about a man.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand there is Nicki Minaj who often says sexual things in her songs, but a lot of her lyrics are also indicating sexual encounters with women. In her new song Truffle Butter she says “I might kiss the baddest bitch if you dare me,” and in Danny Glover by Young Thug, Nicki says in her verse “I am not gay, but let’s be precise, cause if she’s pretty then watch it, I’m-a be f***in your wife.” What I interpret from this is that she is trying to please her male audience by objectifying women, just like the male rappers do, which is unfortunate because I think that Nicki was talented before she began making songs like these.