Double Standard of Chastity

The story of “the Saga of the Mantle” condemn women for being unfaithful to their men, hence why many women were unworthy of the mantle. This double standard for women still exists today in a similar fashion, women are stigmatized for having multiple sexual partners, but men aren’t as much, and even praised for it. How is that any different from women? In “the Saga of the Mantle”, the knights bicker of how faithful they believe their lovers to be, however the mantle tells them otherwise. What was more intriguing was the fact that none of the noblemen or even King Arthur were angry about the unfaithfulness of their lovers. In fact, they ridiculed them and joked about it. For instance, once Kay realized how unfaithful his beloved is, he teases the other guys whose lovers are also unfaithful by gathering them together, and essentially labeling them as whores. What’s interesting is that being unfaithful was so common for all these women to the point that Queen Guinevere couldn’t deny it and ended up laughing it off. What’s more interesting is that all these women were the wives or lovers of knights, and rarely did the story go into detail about unfaithful peasant women. Today, men who cheat on their partners are now condemned but still to a lesser extent than women.