Hester Prynne Double Standards Analysis

While rather strict, demanding, and often arbitrary rules and standards for society set by the public and the media simply pales in comparison to the tyrannical standards of the puritan population during the time of Hester Prynne. It was the social constructs erected by the puritans during the 17th century were very different and much less lax than their modern counterparts. This difference is due largely due to the advancing media and its ability to gather, mingle, and send public views and opinion on a rapid and widespread scale to the general public. However, the media is in no means a good entity. While it has helped humanity further itself in many ways, the media can also be a source for some of the most harmful instances of shame and …show more content…
It can be argued that this region of the world behaves as it does because of constant media, government, and religious pressure and bandwagon tactics. After centuries of these practices, double standards in certain, extreme, areas of this region. Many times these prejudices and hatreds have been acted upon brutally and often lethally upon their peers. As seen in the op-ed about the stoning of a young arab girl by Rod Nordland. While the prejudice this poor girl faced is uncannily close to those faced by Hester Prynne and thousands of other puritans it definitely does not represent the global society as a whole. As if to prove this point, once the the horrific news of the brutal execution of the 19 year old girl, the western world and even the afghanistan responded with criticism and spite for the barbaric acts of these humans. “Western embassies and human-rights groups denounced the attack as another example of abusive treatment of women by the Taliban. President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan called it a “heinous act” and ordered an investigation,” (Nordland). Acts such as those show that every story and situation has two sides to it, especially ones involving the media. In fact, the media has recently had some rather positive effects and opportunities for change as seen in the op-ed Expose the Gender pay Gap by Joanne Lipman. While discussing the disparity in pay between men and women in today’s society. Lipman brings to light that many CEO’s of large companies are not actively supporting this gap and blame their ignorance on the subject for the disparity. Lipman then notes that, “ … Shining some much needed light will make a difference for every one of us, men and women, right now” (Lipman). Through both of the previous two op-eds it has become apparent that today while modern media has the ability to instill negative thoughts and beliefs in the general public, it