Do as we say, not as they do
On Tuesday Feb 24th, 12 year-old sixth grader Justin Reyes of Belpre Middle School in Ohio began serving a three day suspension for bringing in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition into school on Feb 18th. In doing so, he was in violation of the school’s policy on nonverbal harassment and possession of lewd or suggestive material. What a monster.
What happened to Reyes disgusts, but doesn’t surprise me in the least. This kid is in trouble because of the ridiculous double standards that we continue to allow to exist regarding the treatment of men and women, fat and thin, white and non-white. I’m not speaking out of my ass here either, I’ve run into this brick wall of ‘Political Correctness’ myself on more than one occasion.
What is Reyes really guilty of? In this particular case, he’s being punished because he was born with a dick between his legs. If he had been a girl, he would have been able to read the Swimsuit Edition of SI in peace. Now by no means am I saying that women always get the better end of the deal in every situation everywhere, but when it comes to situations like this, it’s a case of ‘what’s good for the goose, isn’t good (or allowed) for the gander. I’m sure you’ve all seen it, a girl’s locker plastered with pictures of half naked men cut out from advertisements, or teen magazines. Probably the worst was the Calvin Klein ad of the early nineties of a buff male holding a sock on his dick, just a sweaty, muscular male torso with a hand holding a sock over his dick. Talk about the utter sexual objectification of the adult male form, at least the women in SI have their heads in frame. Scandalous.
Consider also that Reyes wouldn’t have had such a problem if he had been reading a magazine that showcased obese women in the same bikinis and scintillating poses, if anything, he might have been applauded for being in support of obese female models. Why? Because we’re made to believe that fat chicks aren’t attractive, so they can’t be objectified by men, rather pitied and patronized by them. What fools.
Some of you may say this imbalance finally empowers women and is justified by the imbalances of the past, that men are getting their just desserts for being biased and oppressive against women for so long. The problem with this petty way of thinking is that it serves only to plant seeds of contempt, and will eventually force the pendulum to swing back to the other extreme over time if we don’t give our heads a shake. Equality demands balance, there is no justice to be had by our acceptance of anything less.