“The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal”

Aristotle

Equality, in my opinion, is defined as equal expectations as well as equal accountability. Put another way, the standard should be the same regardless of gender and that you should be held accountable for your choice, irrespective of gender. Because men and women are held to different standards, and women, by and large, aren’t held accountable for their actions, we are not equals.

Women often bemoan the fact that there are double standards, yet are conspicuously quiet when they are the benefactors of said double standards.  For example, men are expected to, pay for dates, be the breadwinner, etc despite the fact that collectively, women make and have more money at their disposal than at any other point in recorded history.

Additionally, a lot of the double standards that women complain about are largely based in opinion. For example, one of their most common gripes is that if a man has many sexual partners he’s viewed favorably, where as if a woman has many sexual partners, she is viewed negatively. Again, this is an opinion, but let’s examine why this is this case. Women, for the most part can have sex whenever they desire, so it really isn’t an accomplishment to have multiple sex partners. Sex for men is much harder to obtain comparatively speaking, and thus for him to have many sexual partners is much more of accomplishment.  Here’s another way of looking at it. If some starts with nothing, but turns themselves into a success, that’s is more widely viewed and celebrated as an accomplishment than someone who inherited their wealth or success.

Again, by and large the double standards that women complain about are more or less opinion based or cultural and likely to vary from person to person. However, the double standards that men face are far more often to be both cultural or opinion based, as well and legal and therein lies the problem.

Here are some quick facts:

40 percent of all domestic violence victims are men, yet over 97 percent of domestic violence shelters are women only.

27 US States are maternal states, meaning that child custody is automatically awarded to the mother.

In Fiscal Year 2016, there were over 500,000 alimony recipients and only 8% were male.

As of January 2017, 52.3 percent of single mothers were awarded child support vs only 31.4 percent of single fathers

Women are 60 percent less likely to be prosecuted for the same crimes as men, and when they are, they serve less than 50 percent of the time male offenders do, if they receive time at all.

While all the facts that I just mentioned are bad, the last one perhaps is moist heinous.  I’d like to present for you today sort of a personal example. This case, some of you may or may not be familiar with. It happened in Bibb County, Georgia.  Macon Georgia to be more exact, which is literally 10 minutes from where I live, but I digress.

Deneesha Lemandy Carter, 23, was charged with violating her oath as a public officer within the Georgia Department of corrections.  She admitted to having sexual contact with Walter Lee Harris, (more on that in a minute) an inmate that is serving a life sentence for murder.  Adding more drama to an already drama filled situation; Deneesha Carter got pregnant with Walter Lee Harris’s baby and gave birth to the child.

When asked why she did what she did by the judge during her court case, she replied, “I was young and made a mistake.” She took at plea deal and received no jail time, was given 5 years of probation, and will not be allowed to have a career in law enforcement, and she doesn’t have to register as a sex offender.

So, let’s look at this. She, according to the letter of the law, sexual assaulted or actually raped this man because as an inmate he can’t give consent to sex.  She used her position over him to gain sex from him. This man is a victim, yet he isn’t treated as such.  As I said before, this whole situation happened 10 minutes from where I live, so I had a front row seat as this whole thing transpired. The local news coverage of it not only put Walter Lee Harris’s name out to the public, but also his picture. Remember, he is the victim in this situation. When have you ever heard a female victim of rape or sexual assault have their name and picture released to the public while the incident is still under investigation?

This woman abused her authority and what was her punishment? 5 years of probation is nothing. She got no jail time and can no longer work in law enforcement.  She basically got a slap on the wrist and this is even more proof positive that men and women aren’t equal because a man is definitely held to a different standard and would be held much more accountable for the same action. This brings me to my next example.

Now I’d like post another case of a corrections officer, or in this case corrections officers, raping inmates. This time, the officers a male and the inmates are females. This comes from NYpost.com and is date 25 May 2017, which is roughly the same time as Deneesha Carter’s incident happened, which was April of 2017.

The Nypost.com article reads:

“A corrections lieutenant at the Brooklyn Detention Center would brag about his unusual penis as he sexually attacked female inmates — so the feds made him drop his pants to clinch the case against him, prosecutors said Thursday. Three of Lt. Eugenio Perez’s five victims separately gave investigators matching descriptions of the prison guard’s penis right down to the nickname he’d bestowed on it, according to new court papers.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors were then able to confirm the description thanks to a search warrant that ordered Perez to show his penis off one more time — for the record

Perez, 46, of Brooklyn was one of three guards charged Thursday with turning the detention center into their personal, often violent, sex den.

A second lieutenant, Carlos Richard Martinez, 47, of Brooklyn is charged with a series of forcible rapes against a petite and “terrified” inmate in her late 20s, court papers say.

“It’s only PREA when you don’t like it,” Martinez joked in a sick Facebook post, referring to the Prison Rape Elimination Act — which, as a lieutenant, he was charged with upholding.

The post included a photo of two men in Brooklyn Detention Center uniforms, papers say.

Both lieutenants would summon their victims to their office for “cleaning” duty, sexually attack them and then threaten them with extra prison time if they told, according to the court papers against them.

Perez would tell his victims that even if they did rat him out, no one would believe them because he is a lieutenant, court papers say.

Both face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

A third correction officer at the prison, Armando Moronta, 39, of Brooklyn is accused of repeatedly having sex with three female inmates in an office at the facility. He faces a maximum of up to 60 years prison.”

Compare and contrast the two events. The 3 men charged with raping female inmates are facing life in prison with one looking at 60 years. No plea bargains were struck. No merely losing their jobs and moving on. Moreover, their victims who are inmates, just as Walter Lee Harris is, have had their names and crimes withheld.  What’s the difference? They are women and he is a man. As such, he isn’t seen as a victim and isn’t afforded the same decency. No, his name and crimes were put on display for everyone to see, despite neither of them being relevant to the case, as he is the victim.

As I said before, double standards and biases against women, by and large are opinion based and cultural. They affect their interpersonal relationship and social standing more than anything else. Double standards and biases toward men have legal ramifications. This is why men and women aren’t equal.