Double Standard, Double Paradigm
Alex Munos

In the world of women there is often a question of fairness, of equality, and of why there are some things men can do that women simply cannot get away with. Within our world there is a perspective that is used to evaluate, judge and assess the value of a woman that separates her from her inherent worth. This perspective is an angle. It cuts away at that which stands in and around its path so that space inside the angle appears complete. It renders a complete view from the perspective of the angle, however from the inside, it feels as thought something is missing. This angle creates a partial view of women that is incomplete and inaccurate. It is the woman who is cut into pieces so that she might fit inside this angle. Moreover, she cannot see that her attempts to walk within the angle and redeem herself are useless, for within this angle there must always be something lacking, that is the nature of an angle.

As women, we look at our world and we see that we must compete with men. We must assert ourselves to take back that value that has been lost in the shuffle of Modernity and the rise of Patriarchy. We must reclaim our worth, and we must do it in this world and in a man’s way of being. The problem is that we can never do it as good as them. We can’t always get the same jobs, can’t play certain sports as well, can’t hold our tongues quite like they could etc. We may not perform like they do, because we are not men. This idea that “we can’t be as good as them” also derives from societal conditioning. That is not to say that women are not equal to men, rather it is to say that women are different than men. The ways of men are not suited for women.

We are living in a patriarchal society and that means that the standard set within this paradigm, the status quo, is a standard where man is the ideal. In this paradigm the standards that are set for women exist in relation to the reigning standard of man being the ideal. Therefore everything determined and judged after that leaves a woman unable to be herself, to live her truth, and to claim her own power, for she is constantly trying to claim her power through the ways of the man. She sits within his paradigm and grasps at the air while she tries to pull her way up. Sure she might be better at it then some men, but how much has she lost of her true self? Even if she is better than some, she might never know her full power because the standard was set so that she must act like a man to win and therefore the power of her truth is never within reach. Man is the standard and doing things like men will never truly work, for we will always be sacrificing ourselves to do it like them. Instead of pulling at the emptiness and fighting with the dark, women must look to their own inner light and simply rise above the paradigm of the man.

It is time to step out of their world. We cannot change it and we cannot win within it. There is another paradigm, one forgotten like dreams upon waking, that holds a space where women are the ideal. It is the paradigm of women and it is a place where the ways of men simply fail to bring success. Here, there is another standard and here women can reclaim their power, their intuition, their knowledge, and their complexity. Here women do not have to be diminished by a standard that was not built for them. As we step out of their paradigm and stop trying to do things their way it becomes impossible to evaluate us, using their standards. Instead we grow on our own-be who we are and then we compete human to human, or perhaps we find we can work together. No matter the result the only way to find our own personal power, our own truth, ourselves, and our souls is to look at what we let them tell us about who we are, and to find an experience where that doesn’t need to be true anymore.

There is a double standard, but it is not that there are two standards operating within one paradigm, rather there are two paradigms with independent standards. The male paradigm that is our status quo has only one standard and that is the standard where man is the ideal. As women compete on this ground we fall short for we are just not men and as we lose ourselves we start seeing double. Step out of their paradigm and find your standard where the powerful soul of women forms the ideal. Stop trying to do it their way and just do it as you would, as your soul would.