A Progressive Critique of Sexual Expression Double Standards: Toward Mutual Empathy and Freedom
From a progressive standpoint rooted in bodily autonomy, consent, & freedom of expression, it's vital to interrogate the contradictions and unexamined dogmas that can arise even within movements focused on justice. Such a contradiction emerges around current expectations placed on male responses to female visual sexual display in public space.
Modern progressive feminism champions a women’s freedom to dress as they choose, including clothing that reveals breasts & nipples and/or gross details of female genitalia. Despite being framed as empowerment, defiance of vanished repressive sexual norms, or the reclaiming of bodily sovereignty there is a parallel—and problematic—demand that often accompanies this expression: that men suppress any and all visible or verbal responses to such displays whether positive or not, lest they be labeled creepy, patriarchal, or worse.
Herein lies contradiction. On the one hand, society affirms the right of women to display extreme sexuality freely in public regardless of their desire to express heightened sexual energy; on the other hand, men are asked to adopt a disembodied, essentially inhuman mode of awareness where natural impulses to look and admire, especially verbal appreciations, must be internally censored until filtered through rigorous, concious, rational screening. This double standard undermines the principles of shared humanity, psychological integrity, & mutual empathy.
Visual stimuli are a fundamental part of male sexual psychology. Pretending otherwise doesn't make us more evolved... it makes us dishonest. Moreover, when women’s clothing choices are hyper-sexualized in their aesthetic function (e.g., contouring vulva or displaying nipples), but the response they trigger in men is policed strictly on a stranger's snap subjective judgment, men are left in an impossible position: to intuit the precise internal standards of each woman they may encounter, with no clear guidance on how or whether to react.
If a man wore clothing that transparently highlighted his genitalia then demanded complete public indifference, mockery, revulsion, & accusations of indecency wouldimmediately ensue. Why? Display of male sexuality is grotesque or ridiculous to the public & overt expression is ridiculous or threatening. The display of female sexuality is seen artful or liberatory. That’s not equity; that’s a socia construct.
Are we supporting empowerment, or are we cultivating a new puritanism that selectively enforces control based on gender? Do we want a society where all people are free to be embodied, expressive, & aware of one another respectfully, but honestly? Or do we want a society that permits only certain kinds of expressions & criminalizes others, not on the basis of action, but on the basis of subjective interpretation & whimsy?
True liberation cannot demand dehumanization of others. Men should be expected to be respectful, but not robotic. Women should be empowered, not insulated from the very humanity they wish to engage with on better terms.
Equality means understanding & accommodating our mutual differences, not crafting one-sided moral hierarchies.