An interesting article on chivalry, after the results of a new survey of women, was published in the Dominion Post on Saturday. I searched around, and found the original on the Telegraph website.
I'm not surprised that offers of chivalry can be viewed with suspicion. It's sad, but true. However, the very fact that these sorts of articles continue to be written (just try searching for chivalry online!) means that there is hope, and it might be that the younger ones will bring it back. I'm certainly training my boys to open doors for women, and the 11 year old really enjoys it.
Related link: Can manners maketh a comeback in the modern world? ~ The Telegraph
Chivalry – alive or dead? According to a new survey, it’s not only on a life support machine but there are legions of women queuing to pull the plug. Ninety-two per cent of women wouldn’t take a seat that was offered to them by a man. Eighty-nine per cent would refuse help with heavy bags. Even on a cold day, 78 per cent would not take a coat from a man.
So while I thought chivalry was an act of kindness dating back to medieval times, when noble knights led a life of gallantry, honour and courtesy, the researchers of an online sock company have put me right. In fact, chivalry is dark and sinister, a powerful reminder that men believe they are the stronger sex. A man who gives up a seat, pays the bill or walks on the outside of the pavement is actually signifying his belief in gender inequality. And the chap who opens my car door isn’t a well-mannered type but someone who is patronising my belief that I am quite hopeless without him, because I am a woman and he is a man.
“Men’s standards have slipped so far in recent years that any offer of chivalry from a gentleman knocks a woman off their guard and is viewed with outright suspicion,” claims Mark Hall of socked.co.uk.
I'm not surprised that offers of chivalry can be viewed with suspicion. It's sad, but true. However, the very fact that these sorts of articles continue to be written (just try searching for chivalry online!) means that there is hope, and it might be that the younger ones will bring it back. I'm certainly training my boys to open doors for women, and the 11 year old really enjoys it.
Related link: Can manners maketh a comeback in the modern world? ~ The Telegraph
A survey LOL
ReplyDeleteAnd on a cold rainy night when caught on a dark country road with a flat tyre I bey all these brave independant women who decry "chivalry" would leap at the offer of a passing man to replace the offending wheel with the spare.
Andrei, funny you should mention a flat tyre. I've just been reading quite a few old Dean Koontz novels that my sister-in-law gave us, and in one of them, there's this presumably nice man who stops and helps a woman change a tyre. Even says she should stay in her car, just to be safe, just in case. He changes the tyre and then the woman is so grateful, she gives him her husband's business card, saying he'll be glad to help him out for free with any accounting issues. Anyway, through the business card, he later tracks down her home address, murders her and then her husband, just because she was so nice and he wanted her and the husband to have some peace.
ReplyDeleteThat's Dean Kootnz for you, now I can't read a comment like yours, without being reminded of that.
I still open the car door for my wife (unless it's raining of course).
ReplyDeleteWow, keep it up, Jonno!
ReplyDeleteI had to physically stop myself from opening the car door for my youngest boy now that he's growing up. All that nun training just gets ingrained.