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Wednesday, January 18. 2012

We're all equal now

'Dude, Where’s My Lifeboat?’ In the Italian cruise-ship disaster, another death knell for the age of chivalry.


Women have been begging men for thirty years to treat them no differently from men. I never could meet that demand, having inherited a slight gallantry gene from my Dad. I'd be the sucker who drowned, and would receive no post-mortem gratitude.

Posted by The News Junkie at 12:55 | Comments (11) | Trackbacks (0)

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Old story: In the mid 80s, I attended an academic conference in Sicily. Attending the conference were highly educated academics from around the world. One evening a buffet dinner was served in an old castle as part of the social program. When the serving trays with the food came out and were placed by the kitchen staff on long tables in the courtyard, the Americans, Canadians, Brits, Australians, and others dutifully formed a single line to queue up for food. Our Italian hosts, on the other hand, rushed to the head of the line to form a separate queue. Our line progressed slowly. As it happened, by the time those of us at the back of the first line reached the food trays, very little food was left. The rude behavior of our hosts that night left a bad taste in our mouths, you can be sure.
#1 Agent Cooper on 2012-01-18 13:43 (Reply)
You'd receive the gratitude. You may never know you received it. But it would be there nonetheless.
#2 Marie on 2012-01-18 13:56 (Reply)
Last year while holidaying in Europe I did as I always do ie, hold a door open for a woman. Firmly and without humour this one said: "Don't gender me."

If she had been aboard the Costa Concordia, I wonder if she would have said that to a male who pushed her ahead of himself.
#3 HRT on 2012-01-18 15:56 (Reply)
That reminds me. When I was working temporarily in France some years ago, I would take the bus to the office. Usually there were enough seats for everyone, but one day it got very crowded. An older woman got on the bus and so I stood up to give her my seat. She, along with the other passengers, was just astonished that I would offer her a seat. If they hadn't already suspected from my appearance, they all knew then I was NOT French.
#3.1 Agent Cooper on 2012-01-18 16:21 (Reply)
Dude, you know, you know. Stop using your unearned brutish strength to maintain the aggression patriarchy, and let those who are the nurturers of civilization, and their progeny, go first.

That "don't gender me" was the dead giveaway that this is person steeped in feminist doxology, convinced that after 65 years of the Pax Americana, that virile masculinity is the existential threat to Civilization, and must be neutered.
#3.2 John A. Fleming on 2012-01-18 18:18 (Reply)
Could it be a masculine response to the transmogrification of femininity into a beast in the age of the harridan?
#4 Jephnol (Link) on 2012-01-18 16:45 (Reply)
And then you'd know how Ethan Edwards felt, after bringing Debbie home, he got the door shut in his face.
#5 John A. Fleming on 2012-01-18 19:06 (Reply)
I open doors for men, too.

I was raised to be a gentleman, until sword met sword.
#6 XRay on 2012-01-18 21:45 (Reply)
I once gave up my subway seat in Tokyo to an elderly, bent-over woman with a huge bundle.
The Japanese men glared at me as if I had nut-kicked the emperor.
#7 PacRim Jim (Link) on 2012-01-18 22:53 (Reply)
I appreciate anyone holding a door for me and always, always smile and say thank you.

I hold doors for people who need it--pregnant women, people with kids, etc. and loudly say you're welcome if they sail right by without acknowledging me.

I'm with Hannibal Lector, I cannot abide bad manners.
#8 portlandmermaid on 2012-01-19 01:14 (Reply)
As a teenager, I remember once holding a door for an elderly African American woman. Our eyes locked for just a little too long as she passed, and she knew and I knew, and she smiled a little, and I smiled a little, and she went on through. A better world...
#9 Tom Armstrong (Link) on 2012-01-19 09:32 (Reply)

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