Looking back to the early 19th century, it is safe to say that women have come a long way in society. From getting the right to vote, to being at least more so accepted in the workplace, activists have began to close the societal gap between men and women. Although women have made these leaps and bounds, there are, however, still several double standards that taint the millennial woman starting from the time when she is an early teenager. One of the biggest being the double standard of women losing their virginity and sleeping with multiple partners, verses the standard that goes towards the millennial man.
When a young man enters his mid-teens, and starts saying that he wants to have sex, it is too common for his friends/older siblings to be encouraging of the fact, celebrating the big day when it finally happens. Further, if a man who is 20-years-old tells someone that he lost his virginity at 15 and has slept with 20 plus women since then, he may be looked at as a player. However, if a woman were to tell a new partner that, she would be looked at as getting around too much and most likely be thought of as a slut. In reverse, if a woman is about to sleep with a man and she knows that he has most likely slept around a bit, for the most part, there will not be a problem with his past, nor after will she tell her friends that he is one big man whore. This creates an extreme double standard, as women are expected to be achievable and good in bed, however also have a low body count.
But why is society posed to think this way, putting women down for being sexually independent, while being accepting of men? In my opinion, I think it goes back to an older way of thinking that has more of a religious/traditional base. Looking back at the start of the 19th century, women were expected to remain pure and untouched until they were given away by their fathers at the alter. The man they were marrying, most certainly was not always expected to be pure, however the woman most always was. As society is still ever changing, this view has transferred onto common society, however changing slightly. Today, certainly more women do not choose to wait till marriage to lose their virginity, which if it is their personal choice to wait, is more than alright and should be respected. However, people expect them to keep their numbers low.
What if these views were reversed and men were discouraged for losing their virginity and getting their numbers too high, and women were the only ones who were expected to be sexually independent and free. How would that change society and social standards? In my opinion, sex is about being intimate with who a person chooses to be and owning one's own body. Sex has and always will be a personal decision. Therefore, I do not think that society should put females or males down for deciding who and how many people they choose to sleep with. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that everyone should sleep around a lot or lose their virginity early, as some people do choose to wait and that is respectable. However, if society stopped putting women at a different standard that what men are, we would move even further towards having a society of equality, rather than a society of double standards.
