Wouldn't Equality Be Nice?

I know what you’re thinking, what is the need for this article, aren’t the genders already equal? No, I’m afraid they aren’t. Don’t worry; this isn’t going to be an anti-men rant. It’s just going to highlight some of the gender inequalities left in the world, mostly feminist issues. For example, did you know that male employees in the banking world are still paid more than female employees in the same level of employment? And that’s not just made-up ‘facts’, there are plenty of figures to prove it.

Being as this is a website most inhabited by teenagers, I'm assuming none of us will have experienced this world, so perhaps this fact will instead show you the ‘acceptable’ gender differences. While joking with a male friend, we discovered that most men’s public toilets that have condom machines are selling the condoms at the price of £1 for three, whereas most women’s public toilets that have condom machines are selling the condoms at the price of £2 for three.

Going further on the subject of gender sexuality, could you ponder or even explain these for me? There are anomalies in our ‘equality’.

Firstly, male masturbation is perfectly acceptable, and most men will happily admit to it without society making them feel awkward, weird or disgusting; female masturbation, however, is one of the last taboos in our society, and even the thought is socially thought of as weird and disgusting.

Also, classically, the player versus slut issue. I’m sure you’ve all heard it before, but if a guy sleeps around, hooks up at parties and never has serious relationships, his friends are most likely to view this as favourable behaviour, although girls may regard him as a pervert. Girls, on the other hand, are more than likely to be regarded negatively by all for similar behaviour.

Finally, one on the inequality for men side: Women and girls may cross-dress all they like without it even being labelled as such. Female clothing shops sell men’s jeans, marketed as ‘Boyfriend Jeans’, and many a woman or girl will buy a shirt from a male clothing shop. However, if a man were to wear female clothing, be it underwear, jeans, tops or footwear, this would be labelled immediately as cross-dressing.

But everybody thinks the world is a more equal place. Thanks to suffragettes, woman have the vote equally with men, but England has only had one female Prime Minister, and only because she was so masculine she was more masculine than any of her colleagues, and was the worst Prime Minister in human memory. Likewise, the USA is yet to have a female President.

Another fact also needs to be pointed out: Due to archaic views of a woman’s place, there was the belief that a girl is her father’s property until she marries, then a woman is her husband’s property. This led to marriage being a woman’s destiny, and her worth in society. In this way, girls had the title Miss, boys had the title Master, women had the title Missus, and men had the title Mister. Master has ultimately been dropped, all boys and men having the title Mr, a shortening of both pronounced as Mister. Missus has been shortened to Mrs, and still refers only to married women. Miss refers still to girls and unmarried women.

And what is this lengthy explanation for, you ask? Well, it serves the purpose of explaining the title Ms. While men need not declare their marital status via their title, a woman must either be a married woman, or either a girl or a spinster. For those are the images brought up by these titles. Unfortunately, the title Ms can bring up the image of a feminist, a lesbian or a woman on the extreme left, politically. So where does that leave a young unmarried woman?

If you’re still not convinced by my examples of inequality, if you still think that the genders are now equal, take a look at musicians. Rock, or hip-hop; choose pretty much any genre. Think of a good male artist. Plenty to choose from, aren’t there? And most of them won’t be the most attractive, and if they are it’s definitely not why you’ve chosen them. Think of a good female artist. They’re almost certainly very attractive, and this is part of the appeal. A man with musical skill and without good looks can easily make it as a musician; a woman in a similar situation will find it much harder. But similarly, a woman can make it with just a pretty face, whereas a man would be less able to make it in this way.

These attractive female and talented male stereotypes are shown to us at an early age, with beautiful princesses and brave princes and knights. Even as we grow we are expected to fit into them; pre-teen and teenaged girls are supposed to be into make up, hair and all kinds of pretty things, while boys of the same age are supposed to be into football and all kinds of skilled things.

Is this really a world where the genders are equal? We still need feminism.