A teenage boy goes to school and he’s just slept with someone, tells his friends, and he is praised. A teenage girl goes to school and she’s just slept with someone. She tells her friends, and soon she has people she doesn’t know calling her names–names she has never been called before, and names she never dreamt of being called. The sexual double standard between genders is absolutely ridiculous, and sometimes, I feel it’s overlooked.

  According to “Is Our Sexual Double Standard Going Away?” by Psychology Today, women are judged more harshly than men for engaging in the same behaviors, especially when those behaviors have to do with sex or sex with multiple partners. To me, it is very unlikely that a man will ever be labeled anything that a woman is often labeled.

   In “He’s A Stud, She’s A Slut. How is This Still a Thing?” by Pucker Mob, two of the arguments for a man’s behavior are “boys will be boys” and “they need to get it out of their system.” Both of these phrases make it seem like their behavior will make them more of a man by having a high “body count.” But if a teenage girl does the same thing, it somehow doesn’t make her any more of a woman than the “man” sitting next to her.

  According to “Double Standard Alive & Well in Views on Promiscuity” by PsychCentral, Cornell researchers found that even though cultural and societal attitudes had loosed on the subject, men were still regarded as “studly” and women were still regarded as “slutty.”

  What I feel is often missed is the fact that teenagers are potentially peer pressured into doing it, and if they don’t, they’re made fun of. Teenagers miss the fact that it’s okay to be a virgin, and it’s okay to have different morals than someone else. I’m not sure when being promiscuous at a young age became the next “cool” thing.

  In “5 Reasons Why Virginity is A-OK” by Thought Catalog, reasons to wait include there being more to love than sex, it is wrong to do something just to fit in, sex should mean something and there is no rush.

  I feel like the double standard is ridiculous. Men aren’t “studs” and women aren’t “sluts.” Teenagers should take pride in not having a “body count.”