Double standards are applied in society all the time, even though they should not be. A double standard is when multiple people, or groups of people, are treated differently even though they should be treated the same.
The most obvious and prevalent double standard is the difference in treatment between men and women. Women still get paid less than men for doing the same job, regardless of the equality in their duties, efforts, and achievements.
A double standard can also refer to the use of a different set of rules for multiple situations, despite the situations being the same. For example, if a friend expects you to always be honest with them, but lies to you in return, that is a double standard.
As mentioned before, double standards are applied in society all the time, and Redditors have noticed. They are only too eager to share the double standards they've noticed in their lives and communities.
It all started when Redditor FewCarry7472 asked:
"What is the worst double standard currently?"
Working Like A Dog
"Companies expecting you to be loyal to them while showing none in return. Loyalty is a two-way street. If I find a better job and give your the appropriate number of weeks’ notice, you can’t complain, especially since you can get rid of me for any reason."
– ChronoLegion2
"I’ve found that if you are extremely loyal to a company and show them you will be will be there no matter what, they will walk all over you. Workers who were firm and had boundaries got more things. I know of a woman who is amazing at her job, but they won’t promote her because they need a teacher. They know that they can promote over her, and she will always be there."
– HagridsSexyNippples
But It Only Happened Once!
"Work-wise, they're along the same lines. Either, the person who does pretty much nothing gets away with it constantly, but everyone else is watched like a hawk, or when the person who never calls in sick does just ONCE and it's a whole thing as if they're lying."
– Ryandhamilton18
"I'm a software engineering manager and a peer manager is out sick literally like 3 days a week. I need you to understand that I am not exaggerating. Average of 3 days per week. Sometimes one day, sometimes a couple days, sometimes the whole week. Average = 3."
"She makes a big harumph any time I'm out - once even throwing a fit about me taking a 4 day weekend (Friday and the following Monday PTO), which I had scheduled THREE MONTHS in advance."
"It takes every bit of self-control I have ever learned, not to scream "MAYBE I NEED A BREAK BECAUSE I SPEND MORE TIME COVERING FOR YOUR A** THAN I DO WORKING ON MY OWN JOB""
"She's been working on one project for 14 months and I'M the one who has to pull some bullsh*t out of my a** for the client every. F*cking. Day.
"This is the only real problem with my job. I love it otherwise, and I'm still about damn ready to quit."
– nocksers
Singled Out
"You can do 99 things right and will always be criticized for the one thing you did wrong."
"But someone who did 99 things wrong will always be praised for the one thing they did right."
– BM13-
"Wow, this just sparked a (very old) memory. In school I was such a good kid - never skipped class, always on time, respectful toward my teachers. One day during my Senior year I was late to a class by two seconds and I got detention! Meanwhile half the class would stroll in late, talk during class, etc. and they never got into trouble. I'm still salty about it 30+ years later."
– shmoobel
Daddy Daycare
"As a new parent, it really bothers me when only the ladies room has those baby changing stations."
"Dads need to change poopy diapers too!"
– MedSurgNurse
"Been there... On a gas station on the freeway, only the ladies room had a "poop station.""
"Saw a lady coming out and asked if there was anybody else in there, she said yes and went to warn the other ladies that I was coming in to change the dirty diaper."
"Took a while (it was one of those poop explosions), a group of older ladies comes in and gets really angry for seeing a guy in the ladies room, until they saw what I was doing."
"They immediately offered help if I couldn't change the diaper alone."
"Fun interaction, it was 10 years ago, nowadays there are much more men's room with "poop stations.""
– EGDragul
"My kids are almost a decade apart, and this statement couldn’t be truer."
"First kid was a nightmare being solo dad with him before potty training. He got changed more times in the hatch of my Subaru than anywhere else outside of the house. My daughter was easy peasy privacy."
– sparkmearse
Anyone Can Be A Villain
"I suffer from PTSD due to mental abuse from my ex-wife. I mentioned it, one time, and was told to “Man up. Women can’t abuse men.” So, now, no one knows."
– AllisonWesley
"It's such bullsh*t. My brother was horribly abused by his ex wife, but she never hit him. It was all psychological, emotional, and financial abuse. It's still abuse though, and it doesn't get talked about enough."
– kmill0202
No Way To Win
"If I show up 5 minutes late to work, I'm bad at my job and need "corrective" measures. I work 15 minutes past the end of day and I'm simply a good worker doing their job as expected."
– mailordermonster
Stay At Home
"Me at Home Depot with my daughter:
""aww daddy took the day off.""
""This is my job.""
"Target and local grocery they know I’m a stay-at-home and are actually really nice about it."
"Also, my daughter is best friends with a girl at gymnastics. Mother asked for a play date and I said, ""let me give you my wife’s number cause this is weird.""
"My friends make fun of me, but I just always say, "if any of your wives went to law school and were an executive where would you be?""
"And they say “at home with the kids.""
– Elegant_Housing_For
"Man this one drives me up the wall and I don't even have kids."
– CopperTucker
Anyone Can Be Bigoted
"People of color can’t be racist. They can be……"
– reverendblinddog
"Or that white people can't know racism. Coming from living in Tokyo for years, this cracks me up."
– Vealophile
Keep Calm And Keep Quiet
"Socially acceptable to tell introverts to talk more."
"Socially unacceptable to tell extroverts to shut up for once."
– Burnsy813
Cheating Is Cheating
"Women who think that fooling around with other girls isn’t cheating. If it isn’t then let’s both do it together."
– ydney976
"It’s partly because heretosexual couples aren’t taught to be threatened by it. Men especially don’t believe a woman is going to leave them for another woman. Well, maybe until recently."
– superbv1llain
Women vs. Men
"Women who don’t clean enough or aren’t organized: lazy; bad housekeepers"
"Men who don’t clean enough or aren’t organized: men"
"Single women over 30 without children: selfish, yikes, probably something wrong with her, spinster"
"Single men over 30 without children: probably focusing on his career, hasn’t found the right woman yet"
"Woman in a position of power: greedy b*tch"
"Man in a position of power: successful businessman"
"Woman doubled over in ER, clutching abdomen: "does it feel like cramps? When was your last cycle? How long has it been since you had a bowel movement? Any chance you could be pregnant? Did you eat something unusual?""
"Man doubled over in ER, clutching abdomen: "prepare the OR, this man clearly has a ruptured appendix; his life is in danger, we don’t have time for questions!""
– HyperboleEverAfter
Medical Inequality
"The most horrifying one to me is probably how men’s pain is taken seriously but women are hysterical, overreacting, attention-seeking, it’s all in the head, etc., and left to suffer. There are SO many studies showing that women are far less likely to get pain medication and anaesthetic, have higher rates of misdiagnosis, and have to wait longer for pain treatment. This sh*t has NO place in modern medicine."
– laTeeTza
"They did this 3 times before they actually started a scan. The following year my brother had stomach pains, they kept him for 3 days searching for the cause. Presumed to be the stomach bug…."
– ToastMasterBoi
"It is insane. When I had severe stomach problems (could barely eat, only a few bites of food and I was full, etc), I had multiple nurses tell me "oh it's just your period you don't need to see a doctor." Lo and behold, when I finally saw a doctor it turns out one of the nerves in my stomach was paralyzed and I was slowly starving!"
"And now that I've transitioned to a man, it's wild that doctors take me seriously the first time. I hate it here."
– CopperTucker
Sounds more like blatant sexism to me!
Life is full of double standards and double edged swords. Which of course means that life... is eternally unfair.
Whether it's a sexist issue, a work issue, a race issue, there always seems to be levels of judgement that leave certain parties feeling slighted.
A perfect example is curfews. I can understand having a later curfew when relating to age, but when growing up, several of my female friends had earlier curfews than their younger brothers. Fair? I think not.
Also, parenting is full of double standards. How many times was I told not to curse when half of the adults out there have the mouths of sailors? Mhmmm...
Redditoru/CLHiddenInPlainSightwanted to discuss the most egregious unfairness in life by asking:
What's the WORST double standard?
One of the most stressful and aggravating places for double standards is the workplace. If we all work hard and stay focused we should all be rewarded accordingly. So often that is not the case. Women and people of color and gender expressions are often overlooked in order to promote less productive people. I call BS.
Are you working?
Work Sucks GIF by MOODMANGiphy"My Boss has brought me into his office repeatedly to tell me I don't do enough work and that we are all swamped right now. My Department is short staffed. Yet he has no issues sitting at his desk watching movies all day long, yet if I sit for five minutes to shoot off an email I am wasting my time."
Wining and Working
"I used to work nights by choice, which meant that occasionally I'd knock off work and decide to have a glass of wine before bed. For me, that was about eight in the morning, when my housemates at the time were getting up to go to their nine-to-fives. The reaction from people was insane."
"For me, it seemed way weirder to sleep during the day, wake up in the late afternoon, then get dressed and go out for dinner and drinks with them, which basically meant that I was having wine for breakfast -- but from their perspective, that made perfect sense. Night work is weird."
Sleep Tight
"My stocking manager at my first job (stocking for a grocery store) didn't teach me any of the techniques or methods for efficiency (yes, there are methods and techniques to stocking shelves as quickly and efficiently as possible), so I was very slow at it for a while. Turns out he never trained me because he was too busy napping in the office during our shifts."
"He would help us unload the truck when it got in, and then disappear to his office for the next 5-6 hours while we stocked so he could sleep. Like I understand helping with the shelves isn't necessarily his job, but not training your new employee and sleeping on the job is super crappy."
Crazy Pops
"My grandfather. He acts like an a**hole then gets upset when he gets called on his bull. He's also very quick to use first amendment rights to try and cover his a**, which gets him yelled at even further. He also makes things political during family gatherings, which nets him plenty of nasty looks from both me and my mother. Unfortunately, chewing him out is the only way to shut him up. I'm sorry for complaining so much, I just really needed to get that out of my system."
Goes Both Ways
The Office Monday GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphy"Employers expecting loyalty from employees while provided none in return. Sorry, buddy, loyalty is a two-way street. If you can terminate my employment at a moment's notice, then I reserve the right to leave when I want to."
I knew a ton of these would be work related. As we head back from Covid it's really time to rethink and make adjustments to these situations. Also, grandpa is never changing.
Rationalize This!
angry pegboard nerds GIF by MonstercatGiphy"That my employer expects me to flawlessly come into work on time every day with no excuses allowed, yet our paychecks being late are met with rationalizations and excuses from the payroll department."
Puff Elsewhere
"Breaks during work. Acceptable for smokers, questionable for non."
"I'm a smoker, and at my last job I smoked 3 cigarettes every day. One at ~10am, another one right after lunch, and the third at ~15. I had 30 minutes lunchbreaks, which I only used 20 of to justify the smoking. And once he said I was smoking too much, and wasted so much time, blah blah. It didn't matter anymore when I told him I'd take my full lunchbreaks from now on, without interruption."
Crazy Historical Events That Sound Fake But Are 100% True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
lazy days...
"It isn't the worst double standard, far from it, but it's annoying. It's about the workers who start early (and leave early) vs the workers who start late (and leave late). Let's say I start to work at the office at 6am while my coworker starts at 8am. If I leave at 2pm and he leaves at 4pm, we would have accomplished about the same amount of work. For some reason, I'd be the one who's tagged as lazy because I leave the job earlier. It didn't happen to me, but I witnessed it a few times during my career."
Mr. Dad
"When a mom can parent but a dad can only babysit."
"UGH. My kids are 9 and 11 and when they were younger (so not that long ago), my husband would take them grocery shopping or to the park or to the movies, etc. and so often he'd get "oh, how cute, you're babysitting!" He was like "Umm, no, they're my kids. I'm parenting." SMH."
Tools & Toys
Lets Go Ghost GIF by Arrow VideoGiphy"When I was a kid if I left my toys out and one of my parents stepped on them I got yelled at and in trouble for not putting my toys away. On the other hand, when my dad left his tools out and I stepped on one I got yelled at for not watching where I was stepping."
Blackmail
"I had a friend that worked at a batting cage in high school. The dude that owned the place was super shady and would always pay my friend like 1-2 weeks late. One day my friend had been waiting several days for his paycheck and the owner rolls in to work in a new Lexus. My friend ended up stealing some equipment and keeping it in his car with the threat of reporting the owner if he didn't get paid that day. Lo and behold the owner came up with the money and my friend quit the next day."
BS!
"School administrations will throw a dog-and-pony show about how much they will not tolerate bullying, yet will do nothing when it is taking place within their school. The bullied kid can speak up all they want but nothing will get done without hard evidence or some other BS. What happens when he has had enough and starts hitting back?"
"Suddenly he's the aggressor and now the Principal wants to exact their Zero Tolerance Policy on that kid who justifiably defended himself. If you are a parent and are concerned for your child being a recipient of bullying, empower them to use violence to defend themselves. In some situations violence is the answer."
- TheDoc16
Personal Loss
"Wage theft is larger than all other forms of theft combined, but is not considered a crime. If you steal $100 from the register, you will go to jail, be branded a felon and (potentially) lose your voting rights. If your boss leaves $100 out of your paycheck you can maybe recoup some portion of that after a protracted civil case at significant personal cost."
Louder!
Meme Reaction GIF by reactionseditorGiphy"Person 1 yells at Person 2, then gets offended if Person 2 yells back at them."
You're Hired
"That people won't hire you if you don't have experience but how do you get experience if no one hires you??"
"It's a sign of an industry that is perceived to have enough workers. They know that there are experienced people available, and they don't want to train up a green employee because it costs more."
- superkp
You're Fired!
"Companies will fire you without notice but expect a 2 week notice when the employee resigns."
"Honestly I do it more as a courtesy to my colleagues so I can properly transition my ongoing projects to them. I've been fortunate enough to like my coworkers at all of my jobs and I don't want to make their lives harder for little benefit to me. It's not like the new job is going anywhere in that time."
Respect
"Young people have to respect their elders, but then said elders can say and do as they please."
"Yeah. Had this happen to me. My parents raised me to be their equal. Multiple times I'd be dating a woman with "old fashion" parents who expected me to defer to them as though I'm twelve. They didn't like me much."
Sharp Edges
raul julia GIFGiphy"You can carry two single-edged knives, but a single double-edged knife is automatically illegal."
Medical Fails
"If you take maternity leave, your job/position is protected and your medical insurance still covers you. You can also use any campus facility at my previous university as you are still "considered a student" and your scholarships can be put on hold. NSERC even pays a stipend."
"Get cancer and need to take some time off? Welp, job's not held, your insurance refuses to cover you as you "aren't working". You'll also lose your scholarships and being "on a medical leave of absence" means you can't use any uni's facility without paying a premium."
- rainfal
Lacking Morales
"Colleges that teach ethics while ripping the students off in every way possible. I believe that ethics should still be about what is right or wrong... not what you can legally get away with."
"As a former college student, I felt this one. I feel like every college views students as walking ATMs and I went to a public college so I kind only imagine how much worse a private school would be."
Oh that dad one got me. Why can you keep your clothes on the floor but I can't? Life doesn't have to be perfect but it can certainly be a bit more fair.