A few weeks ago, the conversation around America’s double standards centered around a woman taking advantage of another woman in a precarious spot. This week, we’re back up to our old tricks of “Boys will be boys” and attributing the latest antics of Ryan Lochte to a “jock-ular” charm.
The whole representing our country thing aside, Lochte made a mess of his circumstances recently when he became involved in a web of lies, deceit, and drunkenness and articles surfaced talking about this whole boys will be boys mentality and it got me thinking.
Are we really so far removed from what it means to be associated with an honorable man that we can’t see straight when it comes to a pretty face?
We have a history of chasing the bad boy – hoping for a quick glance, sneaking in a midnight hidden rendezvous, becoming obsessed with sewing our wild oats – and in turn, this type of behavior is glorified, disregarded, or overlooked in an attempt to get our fill.
We wonder why our daughters have difficulty distinguishing between the good guys and the bad boys – because we put the bad boys on the pedestal while the good guys do the heavy lifting.
We have allowed these players, heartbreakers, and in some cases, abusers to get a free get out of jail free card because we really don’t know how else to react. Judges give lightweight sentences to swimmers who rape, society still buys albums from a known domestic abuser, and we open the door for people to be reinstated to their celebri-salary even after punching his fiancee in the face.
And we still wonder why our girls still want the bad boy? And why our boys want to be the rebel without a cause?
Now before I hear all about how Lochte isn’t any of those things above, he is just as much of a disgrace to what it means to be a real man – he’s a liar, disrespectful, and well-known “douchebag” (sorry, Mom!)
Consider this article that my friend recently screenshot after it appeared on her Facebook feed, 10 Reasons why Ryan Lochte is America’s Sexiest Douchebag (from 2012). Peruse it if you must – I won’t share the link here, but you would be amazed at the amount of women who would still “totally hit that” despite his slithery, slimy ways. Nothing has really changed in the last four years. He’s actually just disgraced himself and our country on a bigger level, but hey, who cares right? He’s just a “kid.”
In the words of the 2016 Rio Spokesperson, Mario Andrada:
Let’s give these kids a break. Sometimes you take actions that you later regret. They are magnificent athletes,” Andrada said. “Lochte is one of the best swimmers of all times. They had fun. They made a mistake. It’s part of life. Life goes on. Let’s go.
Oh phew, just a bunch kids wrasslin’ around! Thought for sure maybe they were grown adult men who lied about being held up at gunpoint and participated in alleged acts of public urination, destruction of property, and belligerent behavior with local security guards.
My bad.
But hey, at least the 20-year-old clearly much-more-adult-than-a-32-year-old-swimmer gymnast got her comeuppance when the internet saw fit to make sure she knew just how displeased they were with her Olympics “antics.”
And just for the record, if you condemn Ryan Lochte for his behavior, but would still “hit that” if you had the opportunity?
You’re part of the problem.
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