Oh, wow! Here we are again with another fun double standard article. We all love those. This one is hard to see but easy to find.
You've seen it before everywhere, especially in movies. A girl and boy fall in love, but something always gets in the way. The boy tries to make it up to the girl in some huge gesture and girl falls back in love. Right? Nope.
Why is it always the boy's responsibility to come up with all the grand gestures and the girl just has to swoon? Yeah, maybe it was the boy's fault in the first place. That's when it is his responsibility to make it right. But when both parties are at fault why is it that you see the men picking themselves up by their bootstraps and saying their sweet apologies?
I'm not saying that the boys are in the wrong whenever they try to do something nice for a girl, but why can't girls ever do grand gestures and get the same response back? I see it all over the internet as well. Something goes viral because a boy buys a sweet gift for his girlfriend. Great, right? It shows his love for his significant other. I have never seen anything go viral for a girl doing any sweet gestures for a boy. Whenever I girl tries to see her boyfriend it's viewed as if she's "obsessed" with him, but whenever a guy wants to spend time with his girlfriend it's seen as sweet because he is making time for her.
My theory is this: In our world, we have it set up that the men should be providing for the women. Women need to be appreciative of all the men have done for us. This idea of the men being the providers is what plays into the modern idea that it's sweet for boys to buy girls gifts, but the girls will never get the same response for doing the same for boys. As girls, we have to be the receivers of everything.
For today, you would think because of all the progress we've made that women wouldn't allow men to provide for them so much. I'm not saying men shouldn't give their girlfriends gifts (please keep doing that), but I'm arguing that the reaction after the gift should be changed.
Maybe I've read too many teen fiction books or seen too many romantic comedies in my life, but this shouldn't be such a reoccurring matter. It's just a sweet for a girl to be waiting outside a boy's window with a stereo than when a boy does it. We need to flip this old, misogynistic idea on its head. Women are not being clingy if they are just reciprocating their affection to their boyfriends. Maybe this also goes for any type of relationship, but from my experience and what I've seen, it's reoccurring between men and women. No matter the situation, one person should not be showing the affection for both people. If someone gives you crap for just trying to show your love to someone, call them out and explain how they would do the same for you. All I'm saying is that showing love in a relationship should be a two-way street, so let's treat it that way!
