by Glory Lennon

Created on: April 07, 2009

Chivalry is not dead, not entirely anyway. There are still men who actually care to act as they ought, properly, civilly and like true gentlemen. Contrary to the most popularly held beliefs chivalry is not condescension nor the act of belittling anyone least of all women. How this thought came to be is anyone's guess. Perhaps we should ask Gloria Steinem.

If chivalry is dead it is only the fault of women who don't demand the respect they deserve and of course, the women's movement. If you are under the misguided impression that the women's movement was about respect, think again. We're supposed to believe that the woman's movement was for the liberation of said women but in truth it was men who were released from the bounds of propriety, chivalry and the courteous behavior we civilized humans are supposed to strive for, all of us, not just the male half of the world.

Abortion was to free women from bearing children they didn't want but we forget it also gave men an out, didn't it? Men no longer feel the need to care for the offspring they bring to the world. Why should they? It's only a woman's decision after all. That's what is drilled into them day in, day out.

Nor do men feel the need any longer to care for nor honor the women in their lives be they romantically linked or through familial bounds. Mothers, grandmothers and the like mean nothing to some men. If women have abandoned their roles as mothers why shouldn't men abandon their fatherhood roles as well? Clearly many see it that way and who can blame them?

Men fear getting rebuked for the simple act of opening a door for a woman, offering a hand out of a car or just a friendly smile.

Well, who, pray tell, is to blame for all that?

There, unfortunately, are many men who act worse than barbarians but they don't outnumber the less than genteel ladies out there. For every Sex-in-the-city-slut there is a neanderthal male perhaps not with a club in hand but very likely a few date-rape drugs in his pocket waiting to slip one into the next Sex-in-the-city-slut's drink. It goes both ways. When women behave more like ladies and less like alley cats in heat perhaps men won't shy away from their natural instinct to be courteous. If women refuse to accept this less than chivalrous behavior than less men may behave badly.

Perhaps this is wishful thinking but as it is quite easy to spot the chivalrous among the neanderthals and being we can see them everywhere if we truly want to, then maybe it's not completely a lost cause to say chivalry is most assuredly not dead.

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