"Women are objects of pleasure or reproductive tools to be manipulated for power."

That statement and others like it constantly circulate throughout our society today. Women are continually objectified and mistreated, and this is steadily being made public for everyone to hear and get angry about. From the obvious pictures in magazines and advertisements, to the catcalls directed towards them, women are degraded and disrespected as though they are nothing more than a pretty thing to be admired, something without a mind to reason or a voice to share opinions.

All of this is well known. This conversation has grown all over the world, questions of equality between sexes aimed at women getting the same advances and opportunities as men in any part of society. However, there is still major inequality. And it is everywhere. While all of the hala-baloo about women inequality has been surfacing and cultivating, men have become the forgotten species, being shined on only when needed to be blamed. Men are put on posters and magazines, shown with minimal clothing, only to sell a product. They are put on display as muscled and toned, expressing expectations of what is attractive, adding pressure as to what other men need to look like. How is that any different than women being objectified and used? Women seeing men without a shirt and toned provokes the same thoughts in women as it does in men (when they see women in their underwear).

More inequality is evident when rape, pornography, and human trafficking is discussed. They are usually talked about with women being the victims, and men the horrible humans who participate and inflict such cruelties on women. But, women are not the only ones involved. They do not have dibs on the term "victim." Men are raped. Men suffer from porn. Men are trafficked and sold for their bodies.

Why is it that we conveniently leave out that part? Why is it that women work so hard to gain equality in the workplace and in family situations, but when it comes to dignity and justice, men are not extended the same curtesy? I don't necessarily want answers to these questions, because the questions are not the problem.

I am a woman and I might have a son one day. I don't want to have to explain to him why women are enabled more convenience in life because they once had none. And now he has to work harder than any woman to get recognized for his diligence and talent.

I don't want to degrade or lessen the inequality on women by any means -- cause that is still alive and well -- but I only want to shine a light on the double standard we apparently have for men and women.

I don't want answers to these questions. To quote Mary Wollstonecraft in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women, “the heart, as well as the understanding, is opened by cultivation; and by, which may not appear so clear, strengthening the origins” (66). For society to really change, we all have to be educated about all of the problems. It is then, and then alone, that solutions can be put in place, and real respect and equality is realized.