Assistant director for the Women’s and Gender Studies Program Pat Arnold said misogyny is defined as the devaluation of women in society.

"Misogyny is, or I would define it as, an overarching system of gender based oppression and devaluation that views women as subservient, as having less value or having certain very highly relegated social places that determine or severely limit their options in life and relationship, and sexuality and self expression," Arnold said.

Though misogyny is commonly associated with the societal devaluation of women, it can also be expanded to address men.

"Misogyny is often also contrasted with patriarchy, because they're these interlocking, two sides to the same coin," Arnold said. "Where patriarchy is an overarching social system of men's oppression, of not only women, but of other men that are deemed not... high value, or usually framed in terms of racial oppression as well, like the privileged men."

Pre-nursing freshman Madeline Cutter said double standards and misogyny can be experienced through school curriculums.

"I think double standards is constantly seen with women," Cutter said. "I went to an all girls school, personally, in high school, and I feel like things that I learned there were not displayed in the boys school. (They) would tell us one thing, and I was like, 'I know for a fact (boys have) never been told that in their life.'"

Zoology junior Abby Deming said it can be seen and experienced in the classroom, work fields and in job environments, where women are expected to try harder than men.

Cutter said the party scene can also be a breeding ground for misogynistic tendencies towards women.

"It can be like, girls going out and partying, but guys would be celebrated for it, girls will be looked down (upon)," Cutter said. "‘Oh, she's not taking anything seriously, she's kind of just being a h-- out there.'"

Deming said regardless of the context, anything a female celebrity does can result in harsher consequences.

"I feel like it's taken out on women a lot more than on men," Deming said. "Recently, Chappell Roan, she spoke out publicly... not fully saying, 'Oh, I endorse Kamala Harris', which doesn't mean she's not going to vote for her, she's just like, 'I still have issues with her policies,' and I guess people turned on her very fast, which doesn't happen like that for men, for the most part."

Arnold said the difference between the reactions to male and female celebrities’ sexual lives speaks volumes about double standards.

"Leonardo (DiCaprio), a powerful, wealthy, attractive White man to pursue... as many partners as he wants, and partners where there's like an age, power and prestige gap, so that is viewed as fitting in the right kind (and) understandable place for what a wealthy, powerful man, privileged man would do," Arnold said. "Whereas, when you see women rise to levels of power and privilege, and they even take small steps to emulate some of like, setting boundaries, or have multiple partners, or different partners over time, you know, like, god forbid Taylor Swift have two partners at once."

Additionally, Arnold said the expectation and idea that celebrities’ private lives should be disclosed to the public, as well as the judgment of the celebrity based on their romantic lives, is related to misogyny.

"The reaction to that is part of this broader system of sexual double standards where the popular consciousness is like, ‘No wait, we as a public deserve to know women's sexual behavior or romantic behavior or their private lives in general,' because that's part of the system of how we reinforce the double standards," Arnold said. "It's partly this expectation that women's private lives, sexual lives, romantic lives, are open to public scrutiny, and in particular, it's just this perpetuation of a standard where, men have this power or have this rightful place of entitlement and power, not only over women's lives and bodies, but like their private details as well."

Because celebrities are constantly in the spotlight and their lives are much more public than the average person, they may be more subjected to misogyny and double standards. Arnold said there are pros and cons to their unique situation, with the negative being the lack of privacy they have.

"Because they’re such public figures, it's so easy for people to pry into their public and private lives, and to develop things, like the common phrase now of like a parasocial relationship with them," Arnold said.

However, Arnold said there is also a positive side to being known to an audience, namely the amount of support they receive that contrasts with the negativity.

"Especially as feminist movements and anti-violence movements are popularized on a very widespread stage, you also get the benefit of being seen as an icon that people feel the need to symbolize and then defend," Arnold said. "It's not just that Chappell Roan has gotten pushback, Chappell Roan has also gotten tons of praise, and is viewed as a model for how celebrities can establish their own boundaries. It's generated conversations that all women, all queer people, all people deserve, no matter their career, to be able to establish boundaries that protect their agency and privacy and lives. So I also think that by being so symbolic in a cultural movement, you can be, for better or worse, you can garner the defense of a fan base in virtue of how you're seen and the values that you are seen as embodying."

On a real-life and regular basis, Arnold said experiencing misogyny and double standards as private individuals can sometimes be worse.

"On the everyday level, in some ways, I think it can be worse, because I think plenty of college students, plenty of younger people, as they are navigating their own identities, their own sexualities, their own self image that they put out to the world, they can face the same misogyny, the same misogynoir, but they don't have a fan base to come to their defense," Arnold said. "Part of what celebrities more often have is a community behind them, and part of what can make it worse, and as a result, is just more essential for ordinary people, is having that community of support behind you, like a friend group."

Deming said this mistreatment doesn’t just apply to female celebrities.

"I feel like, for the most part, most celebrities are mistreated in the spotlight, not necessarily just women versus men," Deming said.

Cutter, however, thinks the mistreatment is disproportional.

"​​I think (women are) constantly looked more down upon," Cutter said. "Taylor Swift, for example, she will never be credited to what she deserves. She's highly credited. But if a man was in her position, then they would be so much more famous."

Additionally, Cutter said male celebrities are treated better than female celebrities, to some degree.

"It’s almost celebrated when they're, kind of like, sleeping around and that kind of stuff," Cutter said. "They're seen like, ‘Oh, it's just like, guys do that kind of stuff,' where girls are like s--- shamed right away."

Arnold said women’s behavior is judged through the lens of misogyny.

"So we see when there are controlled cases, we absolutely see that people tend to judge women's behavior under this guise of residual misogyny that they don't display towards men, and instead interpret men's behavior through this guise, this framework of patriarchal entitlement and privilege," Arnold said.

In the case of Taylor Swift, a lot of the audience members who expressed hate toward her and her work during the 2024 Super Bowl season, when she attended games to support her boyfriend Travis Kelce, tended to be men. Arnold said this is due to patriarchy and the concept of masculinity.

"Gender is described in social sciences as not an inherent identity, but a performance, a social performance, and the act of criticizing women for their public behavior is part of men's performance of patriarchal and hegemonic masculinity," Arnold said.

However, Arnold also said there are cases where other women express hatred towards other women, inherently reinforcing misogynistic beliefs and double standards.

"This is something that social scientists have really tried to investigate, is why do some women perpetuate or reinforce the double standards among other women?" Arnold said. "Why don't you see kind of this universal solidarity there? Obviously you do in many cases of women supporting other women... but you still see the influence of patriarchy, even to the extent that it leads women to have misogynistic behavior towards one another as well."

With female celebrities, some are hated by others or by audience members, even when it seems like they haven’t done anything wrong. Arnold said putting in the effort to constantly send hate to a celebrity has a deeper meaning behind it.

"Hyper focusing on the individual is, I think, a route to expressing those underlying biases of misogyny or racism," Arnold said.

Whether it's women celebrities being sent hate from audience members, or women experiencing misogyny in their work environments, Arnold said double standards and misogyny are harmful to society.

"Everyday systems of oppression that women across fields experience, like whether it's women physicians being viewed as less competent than their male counterparts, to women news anchors being subject to online harassment and misogyny and devaluation for the skills and expertise they developed, to just navigating, you know, sexual double standards at a college house party, all of these are symbolic of the way in which misogyny and patriarchy and problematic gender roles in general are really destructive to our day to day lives," Arnold said.