Gallery
But it all comes down to — again — the fact that these men have the privilege to do exactly that. “It allows them to employ the double standard, because ultimately, if he [Hefner] were not a sexual celebrity of sorts, the same standards would’ve been employed against him,” Horvat writes. In other words, he continues, “Hefner would’ve been replaced by as many women as he has replaced.”
After personality, gender is the most important factor to consider. Men in the pre-modern world were generally expected to have as many sexual partners as they wanted. It was generally assumed that, by the time he married, a man would have already had sex. Likewise, it was generally acceptable for married men in the ancient world to have sex as often as he wanted with prostitutes and slaves, although it was considered wrong for him to have sex with a respectable free woman, especially if she was another man’s wife.
The double standard of men being allowed to have sex with as many people as they wanted while women were expected to remain absolutely faithful went mostly unquestioned throughout antiquity. In late antiquity, though, it came under attack by Christians, who insisted that men should be held to the same moral standards as women. In particular, the Christian Church Father Ioannis Chrysostomos (lived c. 349 – 407 AD) pointed this out in his Homily 5 on 1 Thessalonians 4, exclaiming, “But it’s the same crime for both!”
Wealthy men could also afford to hire expensive prostitutes. Poorer men, on the other hand, generally had less access to slaves and prostitutes. Many poor men couldn’t afford to own slaves at all. Similarly, men who were poor generally could only afford to hire the cheapest of prostitutes.
But again, it is many decades before we can fail to give or care two fucks:
