Friday, August 18, 2006

FIND YOUR OWN SEAT

We open doors for women because Mom taught us it was the right thing to do. We also think it's OK to offer up your seat to a woman. On that second count, we're apparently way off base.

The new issue of GQ doles out advice on "modern manners." A paragraph from that report:
"Women are equals now. They can fend for themselves. To offer a perfectly healthy woman a seat simply because she is a woman, however well-intentioned, is creepy. At best, she'll think you're from another country; at worst she'll feel old, or overweight enough to be perceived as pregnant."
Opening doors for women, however, is still considered copacetic. As GQ notes, men should do it "to be nice, you mannerless ape." And to prove that chivalry isn't dead.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would really like to know how many women gave GQ this learned insight. There is never a down-side to good manners, and the standards for such manners have not changed. The occurance of such manners is just more rare. Listen to your mother, Ron.

Anonymous said...

I would really like to know how many women gave GQ this learned insight. There is never a down-side to good manners, and the standards for good manners have not changed. The occurance of such is more rare, however. Listen to your mother, Ron.

Unknown said...

After 15 years of marriage, I still open my wife's car door. It is just the right thing to do.

The Libertarian Guy said...

A line from several Three Stooges movies seems appropriate:

"When men were men, and women were glad of it."