Sex case exposes double standard

ON WEDNESDAY local time, the Minneapolis police released their investigation report on a rape allegation against Liu Qiangdong, founder of JD.com. Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

According to the report, it was "unclear if a crime had actually taken place". Actually, long before they released this report, the local prosecutor had dropped the charges against Liu.

After the report was released, there was another wave of attacks against the young woman involved in the case, who said the opposite to Liu.

Some said that she "set a trap" for Liu, while some even implied she planned the whole incident, including "seducing" Liu into her apartment and asking someone else to call the police so she could blackmail Liu for money.

Such character attacks are unwarranted. The woman has the right to invite anybody to her apartment and have sex with that person if she chooses. She also has the right to say no to any request of any person who enters her room.

However, there have been many cases in the United States in which a woman has accused a man of rape even though the two agreed to have sex first.

The woman has begun a civil lawsuit against Liu for sexual violation, and it is up to the court to decide whether the sex was consensual or not. Until then, no one can say whether either of the two has committed any wrongdoing.

At the moment if there is any person who should be the subject of criticism, it is not the woman, but Liu, who is a married man. How did the keyboard heroes on social networks turn that whole thing upside down and blame the woman? It seems they have double moral standards for the woman and Liu, blaming the former for having sex with a man she knew, while forgiving the latter who had extramarital sex. Is such a double standard fair?

This double standard problem has long been evident on domestic social media networks. Whenever there is any sex scandal, they unilaterally issue strict standards of behavior for the women involved, who receive all the blame, and try to find excuses for the men who are usually the ones deserving of it. Netizens might like to indulge in gossip, but such a double standard is discriminatory and should be abandoned.