The infamous double standard regarding men’s and women’s sexual lives has existed since the beginning of history, with men as the breadwinners with more freedom, while women as caretakers in the home.

Even with myriad of women leaving their traditional roles for the corporate world, and more men taking on the responsibilities of managing home and children, the double standard still exists in full force. It is seen in some of the most popular shows on television.

Look at the “Jersey Shore,” for instance. The men of the house go to clubs almost every night prowling for women, which only serves to enhance their popularity. When a female in the house, however, engages in the same type of activity, she is derogatively labeled – and not just by the men, but by her fellow women as well.

“Easy A,” starring well-known actresses such as Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes and Lisa Kudrow, examines this stereotype. It tells the story of a clean-cut girl, Olive, played by Stone, who feels like a nobody at her high school.

Embarrassed by her lackluster love life, Olive responds to her best friend Rhiannon’s, played by Aly Michalka, inquiries about her weekend with a wildly fabricated tale about losing her virginity to one of her brother’s imaginary college friends. As almost every Iona College student knows, gossip, accurate or not, goes off and running faster than our track team, which was especially true in Olive’s case.

Deeming the fight against Facebook and texting-fueled rumor mill impossible, Olive embraces the newfound attention, reasoning that it is better to be talked badly about than not talked about at all. As talk of her promiscuity spreads, some of her socially ridiculed, male classmates come to her for help. They offer her money and gifts in exchange for telling people they slept together, which Olive accepts, since she understands what it feels like to be an outcast.

Upon helping her classmates, the males’ reputations and popularity take off, bringing them closer to high school’s coveted inner circle, while Olive, who is labeled a “whore,” is ostracized.

While studying “The Scarlet Letter” in class, Olive sees a parallel between her life and that of the main character Hester Prynne’s, prompting her to pin a large, scarlet ‘A’ to the majority of her wardrobe.

As the lies escalate and her reputation worsens, the school’s religious fanatics, headed by ringleader Marianne, played by Bynes, petition to have Olive suspended from school. Olive’s life is quickly spinning out-of-control, and she must figure out where it all went wrong and how to make it right if she wants to get her life back on track.

While the storyline of “Easy A” was unique and spot-on in depicting the double standard that still exists between men and women, the movie’s casting was hit or miss. Emma Stone was a hit, offering a cool, smart, and down-to-earth character that the audience could embrace.

Junior Maureen McNulty said, “I enjoyed the fact that the heroine (Stone) wasn’t completely stereotypical and that she broke the mold of most standard, Hollywood teenage girls. The fact that she was intelligent and sarcastic was refreshing!”

Bynes’ role of the uptight and judgmental religious freak was another hit. Many people have seen Bynes as the cute, quirky, and likeable girl in “The Amanda Show,” “What a Girl Wants,” and “She’s the Man,” so it was fun to see her play an extremely different role that still allowed her sense of humor to shine through.

The biggest casting hit might be Olive’s family. Her parents, played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, were hysterical, especially when interacting with their young, adopted son. While reading the newspaper at breakfast, the father asks his son in a mock-casual tone, “So…where are you originally from?,” which elicits a blank stare from the child.

For any “Friends” fans, however, Lisa Kudrow’s character was a definite miss. For 10 seasons, “Friends” fanatics knew Kudrow as the zany, loveable, and free-spirited Phoebe. Her role in “Easy A” as a selfish, unnerved, and inappropriate guidance counselor came as an unpleasant surprise.

“I was a fan of the movie, especially its sarcastic sense of humor, but the shock of Lisa Kudrow’s ill-natured character was too much for the ‘Friends’ fan in me to take. I left the theatre thinking about how much I wish they would make a ‘Friends’ movie,” said junior Maria Massa. 

However, a specific action of Kudrow’s character offers the biggest twist in the movie – extracting an audible gasp, in unison, from the audience.

Overall, the movie can be assigned an ‘easy A.’ Junior Angelina Vazquez said “It was quirky and different and just an overall fun movie.”