Monday, June 25, 2007

Chivalry

This is a vent.

I'm a woman who appreciates when a man is a gentleman. I'm old-fashioned that way.

So when a man who is walking about 4 paces in front of me doesn't keep the door open for me, I get really pissed off. That happened this morning. He turned around, looked at me, and walked right through the space that was (selfishly) just wide enough for his little body to fit.

Then, the elevator. There were TWO men who walked in front of me, go on the elevator and NEITHER of them attempted to tap the "open door" button as they looked at me through the closing doors (besides they passed me on the concourse -- it's not like they didn't know I was coming!!). They rode the elevator to their respective floors together and all I could think were evil thoughts.

It's not even 8 a.m. and a few men have managed to get under my skin today. Hopefully the worst of my day is done.

(You moms with sons, I implore you to teach your boys how to treat a lady. You dads out there with sons, please teach your boys how to act like a man. You feminist girls, ladies, moms, women out there, accept that you like these little things in life and let the men do for you! It's a wonderful, subtle sign of respect.)

2 comments:

  1. Here here. Well said. My mamma & my Granny Polly drove these points home to me from the time I was a small boy. But you mad another excellent point. The "feminist movement" has done a ton of damage here. Nothing frosts me more than for me to open a door for a lady and have her chew me out that she is capable of opening her own door.

    My normal response to such a tirade is.. "My Mamma & My Granny Polly taught me to open doors and pull out chairs for a lady. From your response, obviously you are NOT a lady. I'll close the door and let you open it yourself then ... Sir!" And then turn and walk away. :)

    Also, part of this IS training on you ladies part too. I can't tell you how many times I have had to gently slap a lady's hand to keep her from opening her own car door. I really do treasure the opportunity to show this type of respect to my friends and even to strangers. One of my colleagues mentioned she taught her sons to open the car door for her by remaining seated in the car until they opened it for her. She would stand in front of a door to a mall or restaurant and refuse to go in until they opened the door.

    A good example of this was friend of mine back east. It took her a while to get use to me always doing these things for her. But soon appreciated it a great deal. She met her future husband and he just didn't seem to get it. I was out with both of them for a weekend event. She waited for him to open the doors and such and he ignored her. I gave him a chance, but when he didn't step up, I did all these things for her. She made it a point to tell me thank you after each event. It wasn't 24 hours until Hubby-to-be was doing these things for her. And he continues to do so to this day.

    It's a two way street. I once heard a statement I still believe to be be true. We teach people how to treat us. We do it by what level of acceptance we provide in every situation. If you accept abuse, you get abuse. If you refuse to accept it, the abuse will stop... one way or another. You want to be treated with courtesy and respect? Refuse to accept anything less from the people closest to you. We can't do anything about the masses in general. All we can do is effect change in our immediate surroundings. Hopefully, that will spread and grow. :)

    Southern by the grace of God.
    Bubba

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  2. I am having fits trying to teach Zigs boy this simple concept.

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