For the past few weeks I’ve noticed several people posting articles from a website called elitedaily on facebook, resulting in horrified exclamations in the comments section, but until now haven’t bothered to check any of them out. I just read this article about how “good girls” are now as a rare as unicorns and now understand the horrified comments.
First of all, the name of the website itself is quite frightening, but this article, besides making harsh generalizations, is extremely sexist. The male writer of the article discusses the trials and tribulations of men attempting to find a woman to settle down with. He complains that men enjoying having multiple partners in non-committal relationships, but that when he wants to settle down prefers that the woman have had few partners. In one particularly gross paragraph he mentions that men believe their future wives are in kindergarten now playing with blocks and what not, as all men would like to grab women straight out of high school before they have the chance to date around.
I was recently watching a new television show that fictionalizes the life of Mary Queen of Scots (and uses hilarious hipster music as the soundtrack rather than attempting to use period-appropriate music) in which her fiancé, the future king of France, appropriately named Frances, believes that he can have as many mistresses as he chooses while Mary must remain chaste. The ideas presented in this article are so similar to the principles upheld in this TV show that are obviously and with reason displayed in a negative light, rendering this writer’s ideals positively medieval. The writer claims that men love half-naked women, but that women shouldn’t be fooled into following these trends because men are “idiotic.” He also mentions that he can treat one woman horribly and take advantage of her because she’s “easy” but then also “be a gentleman who knows how to treat a lady with respect and compassion.” I just finished reading Crime and Punishment and have been thinking quite a lot about the consciousness’ ability to perform these mechanical or algebraic reactions while holding opposing emotional views; this duality doesn’t turn out so well for Raskolnikov, so I would recommend that the writer amend his ideas. These desires to take advantage of women coupled with a desire to find and respect a woman just don’t match up. The author admits that men are idiots and stupid in order to justify their actions, but then complains that men can’t find women who are impressive because of their intellect. The contradictions that flow through the article perhaps prove that these declarations of idiocy and stupidity are entirely justified.
These double standards are just the ideas that women constantly fight to eliminate, and an article such as this one feels like one hundred steps back in many ways, but is also perhaps a rationale for women gaining ground if, as this writer claims, men are going to continue to play by these ancient rules.