Double standard
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Double standards are when certain applications may be acceptable to one group, but seen as taboo to another. Such double standards are seen as unjust because they violate a basic maxim of modern legal jurisprudence: that all parties should stand equal before the law. Double standards also violate the principle of justice known as impartiality, which is based on the assumption that the same standards should be applied to all people, without regard to subjective bias or favoritism based on social class, rank, ethnicity, gender or other distinction. A double standard violates this principle by holding different people accountable according to different standards. Often the proverb "life is not fair" is often used to justify double standards in life.
There is a distinction to be made between double standards and hypocrisy, which implies the stated or presumed acceptance of a single standard a person claims to hold himself or herself accountable to, but which in practice may be disregarded. For example: a man who believes it is his right to have extramarital affairs, but that his wife does not have such a right holds a double standard. A man who publicly condemns extramarital affairs while maintaining his mistress is a hypocrite.
See also
- Discrimination
- Double bind
- Doublethink
- Golden rule/ethic of reciprocity
- Hypocrisy
- Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi
- Psychological projection
- Reciprocity (social and political philosophy)