Societal standards

Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok and any other app I opened this week had me questioning why we have some particular societal standards. How did they become the standards? Who endorsed them? Why do we even follow them? There are several but I tailored this blog towards the standards linked to relationships.

 

Relationships have evolved so much over the years. Peoples approach and outlook towards them. I recently had a conversation with my friends about this. I found a meme that said, “Relationship goals: to get pass the ‘talking’ stage.” I set out to find the definition of the talking stage, according to one definition on urban dictionary it is “when two people basically flirt and get to know each other before getting into a relationship. However, from the conversation I had with my friends I deduced it was a no-strings-attached-label-free-friends-with-benefits.

 

Another concept that has taken in a turn when it comes to relationships would be cheating. Why are people normalizing cheating? Why would you get into a relationship knowing you would cheat on someone or continuously repeat your cheating habits? I have three suggestions for you: 1. Don’t get into a relationship at all (if you know you’ll cheat). 2. Pursue polygamous relationships instead of breaking someone’s trust and heart. 3. Go to couple’s therapy. Just my two cents on this situation. Just as I was about to post the blog, I saw a post on theshaderoom. It was an excerpt from a reality show, and they were discussing “cheating respectfully”. They described it as when a guy cheats and you or your friends don’t find out about it. This is a perfect example of what I mean by normalizing cheating.  

 

Considering how high, failed talking stages are it’s no surprise when people start asking people about body counts. Body count is how many people a person has been with. A word that seems acceptable when the male gender mentions it. Boys are praised when they mention large numbers, but when girls do, they get slut-shamed and named called. I have never understood the double standard and still don’t. I had a friend who told me “I know you’re going to think I am a slut” before mentioning her body count because so many people had told her that. I reassured her that what you do with your life is your problem and so the hypocrites name calling her have no audacity in doing so. This is one societal standard that needs to change!

 

The saying “chivalry is dead” has never been truer. Simp culture is on the rise, although this isn’t necessarily a standard it still irks me, so it made the list. It just appeared and has been overused so many times I feel like pulling my hair out when people say the word. Urban dictionary describes it as “someone who does way too much for a person they like.” Unlike body count boys get the short end of the stick when it comes to this word. Toxic masculinity is all I can say to address this. Since when was being a nice person a bad thing? This word serves as justification for all the jerks out there. You have nice guys acting like trash because that’s how society expects them to be, they would rather be jerks than simps. 

 

I could go on and on about different societal norms and how unfair they are and how they need to change but that’s thing about a societal norm. They have become so deep rooted into our lives that we don’t view them as weird anymore. No one wants to question it. No one wants to be the weird one.