Perversion-Objectification-Responsibility Gender Reversal

As Josh looked through the phone screen and the numerous bullets of bite-sized versions of traditional worldviews, he looked on gobsmacked at just how many stereotypes there seemed to be.

• Men are considered perverts and women are considered the common subject/victim of this perversion.
• Men when caught looking at parts of a woman's body are considered perverted/creepy/lacking control and are chastised.
• A man should hold the door for a woman.
• A man should never hit a woman, though a woman can hit a man.
• A man can't ask a female colleague to fetch the coffee for the guys.
• Men are considered to be grubby.
• Men are held responsible for pregnancies.
• Men are considered to care about pregnancy and raising infants much less than women.
• Men are considered to initiate sex more often than women.
• Men are thought to regularly have sex on the mind.
• Women are often sexually objectified in the media and society.

He shook his head. Like, did he just get sent his parents' personal life coaching journal? Because talk about old-fashioned! For some of them, anyway. The others sounded like they came from mancave central.

If he showed a couple friends this, it sure would make for a grandly interesting debate on gender roles in modern society. And some of the girls would probably call it drastically missing the point. Of course, these were just stereotypes; they weren't true. At least, he didn't think they were. But it was true that a lot of old flakes held them as un-shakeable tradition...

Josh scoffed, and looked back down at the app, and the lines of text on his phone staring back at him.

He had to admit...

It was a little sexist on numerous levels, but he couldn't deny that some parts of these, if not necessarily true, were widely held beliefs, cornerstones of western society. If he was being honest, he had it pretty good as a young adult man, and he wouldn't really trade it for anything either.

And yet.

What if, just what if, such things were placed on their head? If the expectations were given a little re-shake? Hypothetically, for student dramatic arts project's sake? It would be funny, wouldn't it?

Nothing too **** -- just the social aspects of the gender dynamic in particular that fell under most cliches. He still wanted women to feel like women and be themselves and do womanly things, and likewise, particularly with the pretty people. After all, he wasn't privy to the idea of a wholly flipped boat. He was mostly a vanilla, unremarkable male after all; but he was one who was scolded by his dad for not holding the door for a lady before, and who had been chastised for looking at a woman's cleavage, and for pining after a young lady's virginity with a pack of 5 guys in his midst all sighing like losers on loser street. Yeah, his high school days were pretty pathetic.

Looking back at the phone, he shrugged and, more than a little amused, began revising.

• Women are perverts and men are the common subject/victim of this perversion.
• Women when caught looking at parts of a man's body are considered perverted/creepy/lacking control and are chastised.
• A woman should hold the door for a man.
• A woman should never hit a man, though a man can hit a woman.
• A woman can't ask a male colleague to fetch the coffee for the girls.
• Men are not considered to be grubby.
• Women are held responsible for pregnancies and making children.
• Men care about pregnancy and raising infants more than women.
• Women initiate sex more often than men.
• Women regularly have sex on the mind.
• Men are often more sexually objectified in the media and society.

He pressed enter and chuckled. Some of that was so wrong, moreso than others. He wondered if he should bring this up to the others later.

Then, suddenly, he was hit with a brief sense of lightheadedness, and it felt like the world was spinning -- if just for a moment.