Once upon a time in recent past a (female) friend of mine commented “LMFAO” on my facebook status; another (male) friend of mine told me that he found it strange to see that such a comment came from a female. I wondered and asked why it was strange to him. He said that it’s just not appropriate for a female to use words like this. I said why? Why can’t girls LMFAO? He said it was the word Ass that made it unreasonable for a girl to use it. I told him not to take words way too literally as it was just an phrase to express one’s excitement or laughter just like the words yahoo, yippee etc.
Such is a predicament of our society in general. There are a number of deeds which are taken for granted and treated as normal if done by men, but the same actions become more wrong and even sinful if done by women. For example, nothing happens if we see a man drinking or smoking a cigarette, but many an eyebrows are raised at a woman doing the same. Though drinking and smoking are bad irrespective of who drinks and smokes. The same kind of hypocrisy is witnessed with regards to watching adult movies by men ‘cos it’s a “guy thing”, whereas it’s a “no-no thing” for women ‘cos they are supposed to be emotionally weak so they are more likely to give themselves over to sinning.
What is worse is the fact that in our morally, ethically, traditionally and religiously rich society it is socially acceptable for a man (single or married) to sleep with as many women as he wants and he will still be dealt with normally by his family, friends and relatives. Whereas if a woman luxuriates in such an act, she becomes an outcast, she loses the respect and gets even killed by her father or husband or brother, on the other hand she can never kill a womanizing father or husband or brother. One just wonders why there are words such as whore, prostitute, slut etc for a woman who apparently hangs out with guys, whereas no such words for a man who parties with women. The worse is that a woman who is alleged to have an affair with one person might never get married as no man will accept her, whereas a man even if he has had affairs with many women would still be able to get as many brides from respectable families as he likes.
The irony is that even women themselves are no lesser hypocrites. A mother might never accept a smoking girl or a girl who was allegedly involved in premarital affair as a bride for his son, but she will less likely have any objection to getting her daughter married to a man with the same traits. The thing which is most horribly wrong with our society is the behavior with rape victims. Though a girl is victimized, still she loses all reasons to live a respectable life in our society. In most tragic scenarios, she kills herself to rid herself as well as her family of any so-called disrespect meted out by the society. A girl getting raped and subsequently killing herself used to be an important scene in movies of yore.
I am in no way trying to suggest that women should treat themselves to such things, but all I want to say is that anything bad should be treated as bad irrespective of who does it, and everyone, whether male or female, doing it should be treated the same way.
Fiddle & the Drum 