Confronting the failure of modern feminism

Feminist Jessica Valenti is right: There is a moral inconsistency that permeates our society. 

For generations now, men have been encouraged and applauded for their sexual promiscuity. In the media, men are portrayed as heroes as they “sow their wild oats” with any attractive female that crosses their path. In our own communities and families, men wear their pants around their ankles, showing no self-restraint. They use women like a commodity as they seek their own sexual pleasure, breaking hearts and ruining lives in the process. On the other hand, women are belittled and ridiculed for even flirting with a similar lifestyle. 

We talk about them behind their backs, point fingers and use demeaning words like “slut” and “whore” to describe their behavior. What’s more, if a woman happens to become pregnant in the process, she is inundated with hateful comments for wanting to wipe the slate clean and start over. This is exactly the type of double standard that modern feminism seeks to eradicate. 

Women should not be held to a higher standard of sexual discipline than their hairy, bumbling counterparts. However, Valenti and other members of this movement are failing. They are pushing us to swing the scale of justice in the wrong direction. Instead of fighting for men to be held accountable for their sinful actions the way women often are, they lower the moral bar so that women can legitimize their own sexual sins. 

Instead of asking society to hold men to a higher standard once again, they ask it to lower the standards and expectations for women. Remember what Mom always taught us: Two wrongs don’t make a right. Such oversight does not help empower women. It places women on a slippery moral plane.

Men should not be asked to lower their expectations of the women they date. Instead, women should be asked to raise their expectations of men. The answer is not to let women enjoy the same sexual “freedoms” that men abuse, but rather to require boys to once again act like real men. This is the failure of feminism.

Andrew Russell
Graduate student