My French professor here in Tours, Olivier, was telling us about how the division between the sexes in France is manifested through differing standards on public smoking. He said it was acceptable for men to smoke in public but less acceptable for a woman to do so.
Now surely a lot has changed especially in the past 50 years, but I think he said they were still vestiges of this double standard left in society.
Maybe I could equate it to something like double standard on sleeping around in American society – even though women sleep around as much as guys nowadays it’s still looked down more upon a woman if she sleeps around than it is for a man.
Anyway he gave an interesting explanation as to why it was more unacceptable for a woman to smoke in public. When a woman smokes in public it shows that she is doing something for herself in a very open way and in a patriarchal society women aren’t allowed to do things pleasurable for themselves. However it’s okay for a man to smoke in public because he can partake in pleasurable things while women had to cater to others not themselves.
Disclaimer: this was all explained in French so there’s a possibility I could have missed something. I don’t think I was paying attention but started to when he began explaining this so I could have missed some stuff.
What do you guys think?
(Image from weheartit.com)
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