In January this year Jan Norman wrote an article titled, “Sexy photos anger O.C. fitness club members.” It was published in the Orange County Register (Jan. 9, 2012 Updated: Jan. 10, 2012 9:04 a.m.). According to this article some fairly explicit and certainly suggestive photos, larger than life, were posted around the former Sports Club/LA in Irvine (recently acquired by Equinox in October 2011). These photos have apparently offended some of the members. Their complaint is that “the photos emphasize sex and objectify women.” Perhaps most disturbing is the one placed at the entrance of the fitness center's kids club. If I were a parent dropping off my child here I would be angry, too. The insensitivity of Equinox is puzzling. I think this insensitive action by Equinox illustrates a disturbing trend in American society.
For those of us who have traveled abroad or lived overseas for a period of time, we probably know that societal double standards have become the norm in many places in the world. The sensitive, morally conservative Westerner might find this disturbing. But in these places such practices would not be considered shocking or even unusual. I remember, for instance, even twenty years ago in Taiwan finding photos of mostly nude women posted on telephone poles and under the windshield wipers of all the cars in the neighborhood. Not something I wanted my 8 year old son to see. For generations and even centuries some Asian countries have been institutionalizing and perfecting the double standard approach to morality. When I say perfecting I mean working on ways to keep their two worlds separate, the moral family life and the immoral business life. Businessmen expect their wives to be faithful while they reward themselves and their colleagues with entertainment that includes other women. One popular Taiwanese saying compares boredom to having sex with one’s wife. Cutting corners on product production or cheating on taxes are considered necessary and wise business practices. But these same men expect their children to be honest, truthful, transparent and to do only their best (if not better).
These practices are not foreign to America, of course. In the past it was not uncommon to challenge the double standard in Western society. In the 19th century Josephine Butler, for instance, voiced her complaint very well in her article, “The Double Standard of Morality.” (1886) But I want to think that many of us in our day still have a conscience and that the threat of getting caught is not the only reason we avoid double standard living. There is, however, it seems to me, a cultural tidal wave moving us in this direction, wanting to establish the double standard as the cultural norm for every level of society.
Yes, a double standard already exists in America. But the religious convictions and practices of past generations, and the freedom of our democracy, along with the short amount of time we have been a nation, have kept us from perfecting the double standard as an acceptable way of life. By acceptable I mean the attitude, “That’s just the way it is. There’s nothing anyone can do to make it different.” This attitude has long been bolstered, as Butler points out, by expressions like “He is just sowing his wild oats,” a phrase I heard my own mother use when I was boy. In America people with moral convictions have had the ability to speak out against hypocrisy at all levels of society. But it seems that generation after generation there has been a wearing away at the spiritual and moral fabric of our society. Hypocrisy is not under the sole ownership of the religious establishment. And the double standard, I dare say, is even creeping into our fitness centers when children are exposed to sexual content that the owner’s of Equinox would loath their own children to be exposed to.
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