More obviously, rich and handsome boys who are well connected are granted more latitude socially than poor boys, however handsome. The further a person is located from the centres of patriarchal power, the greater the range and number of standards that are applied and the greater the rigour of their application. The more we see standards applied unequally and apparently irrationally, the more ambiguity we experience. Past a certain distance from the centre, we begin to suspect that our problems stem not from double standards or from unacknowledged, variable, and negotiable standards but from the fact that in selected instances, no standards apply at all. Double binds and variable standards together constitute a form of cultural abuse that leads to many forms of social, familial, and personal dysfunction, including madness.
Cultural abuse takes very personal forms.
We experience it as psychological and emotional abuse, personally and individually, first within the family and then within the broader social construction. Cultural abuse often focuses on sexuality and gender role-playing, which are transmitted and enforced first within the family and then within the broader social milieu. Such enforcement often refers directly or indirectly to cultural paradigms rooted in Biblical and theological models and imagery. Though we experience double bind situations and ambiguous cultural standards personally, cultural ambiguities cannot be resolved individually. Moral ambiguity is cultural, not personal.