As a little girl I remember being asked: “Are you a good girl?” This question is asked of little girls starting in very early childhood; it is a question that influences and shapes the minds and behaviors of little girls and begins to socialize them into predetermined gender roles. It also invokes fear and shame in little girls everywhere when they began to contemplate: “what exactly does this question mean?”, “how do I find out what it looks like?”, “who are the judges and by what gauge or yard stick are they measuring this goodness?” The implications of this question can be confusing and unclear. However, what was not confusing and unclear was the insinuation that these “good girls” were the definition of a lady, a lady who sits with her legs closed, uses good manners, dresses modestly, and waits for love and marriage before engaging in sex. Good girls were appealing to boys/men, and would be the girls that were wanted and desired. In "You Men," the poet Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz exposes the sexual double standard that exists between men and women through the use of voice, allusion, gender roles, and the feminist theory. She accurately identifies the inequality that discriminates against women and subjects them to sexual harassment and victimization.

2 In "You Men," Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz uses voice to mock and blame men for perpetuating a sexual double standard. She uses words like “child”, “silly”, and “witless” to communicate that men are immature. She then defines them as egotistical when she writes they are “presumptuous beyond belief”, righteous and arrogant. Her unsavory description continues as she reveals to the reader that she sees right through their attempts to manipulate women and assign them blame when she describes their “urgent plea”, and their behavior intended to coax with whimpers and sneers. I have watched this dynamic play out