Sex on Campus

Now, I know many of you clicked on here just for the title alone, and I know just as many are more than likely appalled that I would blatantly talk about this particular topic.

While I can say that this is college and sex does happen on (in, near, around, etc.) campus, this is not the particular topic of this post. I'm talking about sex as in gender, and the inequalities on campus (and in general).

It was recently brought to my attention (by a friend) that in a neighboring residence hall, in one of the ladies' bathrooms is a stall known as "The Hottie Potty."(I also like"Man Stall"). Within this stall are tons of pictures of male models in various stages of (un)dress. My friend who told me did not know of this before going to said stall one day, and it surprised her seeing so many men staring at her. When she told me this story, I honestly chuckled at the idea.

Today in class (math of all things), my mind related this to the apparent inequalities between men and women, in which certain social "protocols" are overlooked in favor of women. In high school, many girls in my grade (actually, every grade) pinned up similar male model pictures. Any time they opened the door to grab a pencil, there was some hottie in barely-waist-high jeans trying to make "sex eyes" at who ever was looking. I remember saying in high school, "If a guy posted a bunch of women models in their lockers, they'd be practically forced to take them down."

I think this hypocritical stance would happen in our residence hall bathrooms. If a bunch of guys on a floor posted up supermodels in one of the stalls, word would get out, and some one "higher up" would order they be removed. Now, I have no word of if the ladies' "Man Stall" has been found out and eradicated, but I'm just using this as a parallel to show some "inequalities" in social behavior concerning the sexes.

Another "inequality" I recently found (on a forum) was about a local character. Many stories are circulating about how a woman goes around looking for guys coming back from a party, giving them a ride, and sexually assaulting them. Now, there are other stories saying it's a guy dressing up as a woman to assault other men. According to the stories, the cops aren't out in force to find the suspect. Now, this is all from a forum and no real evidence either way. I'm just using the conversation as part of my thought process.

What jumped into my previous segue was something that was said in response to the woman assaulting men story; paraphrased, of course: "If this was a guy picking up women and raping them, the whole city would be after this guy!"

As a male writer, I'm not here to gripe about some of the few inequalities that are in favor of women. Only once women have equal rights to their men counterparts, then we could knit-pick about the little things like "Man Stalls." (Although, sexual predators of either gender should be taken seriously). As a writer, I ask you readers (and hopefully a few responsive writers) what your thoughts are on these "social, sex-based inequalities"? Should men let the women have these "little victories" or should there be a movement of men to stop women objectifying them?

Personally, it goes both way as objectifying goes, but I'd love to hear from some readers--whether they post anonymously or not, that's your choice. I just want a conversation (i.e., not a debate) started about social nuances such as these.

(Again, I have no research into the forum issue, so I can't say one way or the other what is fact, I was merely using the discussion I read about the topic to add a perspective).