Posted on 08/18/2006 1:45:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway
'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."
And that is a lesson in modern manners, according to the new issue of GQ (with Clive Owen on the cover). Glenn O'Brien and other GQ scribes weigh in on e-mails, cellphones, gym etiquette, dressing for travel, how to handle chatty seatmates, sleeping with your friend's ex, online dating, wedding gifts and how to treat gay people: "Gay people don't want to freshen up the world, they just want to be a part of it." (So don't ask for makeovers and fashion tips.)
Oh, but you certainly should open doors for women: "Why? To be nice, you mannerless ape!"
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Hey,I'm from "Tha Town".Whats up with it?
Just curious as to the ethnicity of the offended female?
Somehow I have this suspicion she is of the Caucasian Persuasion.
The sisters and senoras don't trip off of good manners from a man.
I believe the cavemen of old have the appropriate and well mannered responsive analysis to the GQ revisionist manners.
Take publication, wipe *ss, dispose down comode. Evaluation complete.
It makes a person wonder if the workers have even encountered hetersexuals.
Isn't that half the fun? The normal women love it and are affirmed in their femininity. The abnormal ones . . . whatever. I do think it chips away at their weirdness, though.
You are, for the most part, right.
HST, I got slapped in NYC about 30 years ago while holding a heavy hotel door open for a "lady."
I was so stunned and surprised by her attack, I forgot to slap her back.
But I still hold doors open, stand when ladies enter a room, pull out chairs, etc., etc.
We Southren Gennlemen are hard wired to be that way, I reckon.
I am also predisposed to ignore the "Popular Culture," and have mostly done so for the past 35 or so years. So what the people Liz Smith hangs with do is of absolutely no concern to me.
Must be a lot of uncvilized people riding the subways in NYC because I still seemen offering seats to women and mothers w/ children all of the time.
GQ is for fairies.
I think the reason for manners is to keep us from doing just that. I'm not knocking manners at all, I think they work well, but that's the real reason for them.
About a month after I sent my oldest son off to a small college in the early '90s he called me up one night. He said, "Dad, I just want to thank you for raising me the way you did. Since, I just automatically hold doors and show other courtesy toward the young women here, they are so taken aback that they even drag their friends over to meet me -- they find it so unusual."
I work in a very large industrial setting with several buildings. When I walk a sidewalk alongside a female coworker, I stay on the street side. If we cross the road, I continue to stay streetside. I have never had a female coworker make a negative comment about that, and most comment on how much they appreciate it.
It's not hard to show respect to people, and it is never out of style.
Sorry I left out my Asian flowers of womanhood.
They are pretty cool with the old school also.
As are a LOT of white women.But too many of y'all have been seduced by the androgynous ways of the feminist movement.
The Thai folk I've been around have and appreciate excellent manners.
Miss Manners meets Mister Meathead.
Agreed. But it is irritating when those for whom you hold the door fail to thank you. I generally offer my own, "You're welcome." when they fail in the thanking department. They usually then turn and offer thanks, as they should have originally, without prompting.
If I knew that the woman following me was a lib/feminazi, I would make sure to shut the door completely before she opened it. Maybe even lock it.
True dat.
She was probably reacting to your (apparent?) ignorance of the fact that trying to "hold open" DC Metrorail doors will either 1)not work or 2)jam the door and take that car out of commission.
True.
To offer a perfectly healthy woman a seat simply because she is a woman, however well-intentioned, is creepy.
BALONEY!!! To offer a perfectly healthy woman a seat is being a gentleman and being polite. There's something VERY CREEPY about believeing polite and gentlemanlike behavior is "creepy". How disgusting!!
At best, she'll think you're from another country; at worst she'll feel old, or overweight enough to be perceived as pregnant.
Not THIS woman! I'd either say "thank you so much." and take the seat or graciously decline and say "but thank you so much for offering."
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