STANDARD ISSUE
The problem with double standards.
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Standard Issue is a visual examination of American gender standards focusing on the idiosyncratic and misogynistic expectations deemed acceptable by society. Concealing and revealing information through colored lenses, flaps, and lenticular design, each piece explores a different facet of the double standard given to men and women, from beauty standards to emotional expression to sexuality to parental expectations.
He’s blind to her without a tinted lens.
She is seen through rose-colored glasses.
She is only seen as eye candy
To be devoured by the masses.
Her visage of facade is powder and paint
His mug is as bare as his mind.
He recoils at her pure features set free.
To her lipsticked smile, she is confined.
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His obtuseness keeps her angles acute.
She must measure up to what he dictates.
His scale doesn’t take her seriously
Her thoughts and words have no weight.
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His transgressions are downplayed
Her accomplishments are concealed
It’s only when placed side by side
Are all the discrepancies revealed.
You must be this tall to ride he says.
Her bar is up high in the sky.
While his stick is deep in the mud.
Clipped wings will never let her fly.
She bleeds and sweats and cries.
He yawns and averts his gaze
She gives and gives her labor of love.
He willingly receives the praise.
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This paradox is unwinnable for her,
Whether she’s Madonna or whore.
She’s bound in an absurd binary
A contrary double-edged sword.
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They chant bravo, not brava.
They follow god, not goddess.
He can have everything in the world,
But she will always have less.
