"When women go wrong, men go right after them"

Mae West’s line, "When women go wrong, men go right after them", curls with her signature wit and playful subversion of gender dynamics. The surface humor teases with a reversal of virtue and vice, implying that when women step outside the bounds of accepted behavior, when they misbehave, rebel, or flout society’s rules, men are irresistibly drawn to follow. Rather than condemning women’s so-called transgressions, West points to the magnetic allure of female independence or risk-taking, suggesting that men find such women not scandalous, but desirable.

Embedded in this statement is a challenge to societal assumptions of the era. Women’s "going wrong" alludes to behavior that contradicts mainstream morality, whether sexual freedom, outspokenness, or simply refusing to play a prescribed role. The phrase highlights the double standard applied to men and women: men’s "wrongs" are often excused or even valorized, while women’s are stigmatised. Yet, West flips that stigma, suggesting women’s so-called errors spark fascination and pursuit rather than avoidance or punishment.

The quote also nudges at the power women hold, even when society labels them as unruly. The men, drawn in their wake, act from choice, agency, and desire, they are not mere victims but eager participants, if not enablers, of the very behaviors they officially condemn. West’s playful phrasing recognizes shared complicity in the dance of desire and transgression; men’s attraction to women breaking boundaries can be read as admiration for qualities they may suppress or lack.

Finally, the statement nods toward an eternal human truth: what is forbidden or dangerous often becomes more tantalizing. West’s aphorism sparkles with the understanding that cultural norms are not only challenged by rebels but implicitly sustained by those who claim to be scandalized, yet can’t resist joining the intrigue.