Posted on 04/13/2006 11:55:44 AM PDT by ReleaseTheHounds
Imagine a luxury liner sinking into artic waters with too few lifeboats for its passengers. Who would get those seats?
When the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, the answer was obvious: women and children had first priority. Why was this? Certainly, the male passengers could have over-powered most of the women and saved their own lives. What kept them from doing so?
Chivalry. The idea that part of being a man (and certainly part of being a gentleman) is to sacrifice willingly to protect those who are more vulnerable. Of course, all those aboard the Titanic were equally vulnerable to the near freezing water. The men who gave their seats in the lifeboats gave their lives. Out of all of the Titanic's passengers, 74 percent of women lived while 80 percent of the men died.
Christina Hoff Sommers began her review of Harvey Mansfield's new book Manliness by reminding readers of the memorial erected by women in 1931 to honor those men on the Titanic. The memorial's inscription reads: "To the brave men who perished in the wreck of the Titanic. . . . They gave their lives that women and children might be saved." As Sommers suggests, this overlooked memorial is a fitting symbol of the state of chivalry or even of manliness today:
"...almost no one remembers those men. Women no longer bring flowers to the statue on April 15 to honor their chivalry. The idea of male gallantry makes many women nervous, suggesting (as it does) that women require special protection. It implies the sexes are objectively different. It tells us that some things are best left to men. Gallantry is a virtue that dare not speak its name."
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Thanks for posting this article. Chivalry is not totally dead...for the most part, conservative men tend to be the most gallant and courteous towards women. I was just at a Republican event in Sacramento a couple of weeks ago. I did a double take when two...very young...gentlemen opened the door for me and still a few others in the room stood up when I entered. I looked around wondering why they were standing...then I remembered. Apparently, the local Young Republican Club had a couple of meetings about good manners and they took it to heart. Pretty cool, I say.
Gallant, chivalrous men can still be found at FR!
Where in my post did I even hint that I would be offended by a man offering me his seat? Or that I wished to be a man? I appreciate your frustration, but perhaps you should direct it elsewhere.
>>>>So true. You'd think people would bother to use spell check.
Spell check????? Never heard of it.
::Queen of all typos, and proud::
:)
My point exactally .. that's why I the only thing I watched was Dicrappio dying, it actually made me laugh.
They are. It's happened multiple times to me.
(OTOH, I am in California)...
A puzzled look followed by "yes... uh... sir?" is sometimes worth the risk.
But again, I'm in California, and sometimes it is a guy...
FWIW, I Like gray hair on a woman.
You done good.
The titantic was a flesh wound to chivalry... soon to be eclipsed by the collapse of the value of human life in the trenches, which made possible the dark valley of the 20's and 30's.
You like gray hair on a woman? How 'bout if it's on her chest? :P
Proper, yes, but there are sometimes better responses...
White Christian males wouldn't. they'd be run over by everyone else and called every -ist in the book if they did get off.
If it's still attached to my head, sure!
A culture of Chivalry actually
Muslim's male would have throw the women overboard to get to the lifeboats
Rofl! I wasn't expecting such a clever answer! BTW, I'll give my gramma a call and tell her your interested. She just turned 100 in Feb! :)
Too ba, but I think the article is right and it's such a shame. Seems no one puts any stock in honor and duty anymore.
It's become the "me" generation. And that goes for women as well as men!
Bless you!
The last time I heard chivalry mentioned in public affairs, it was Colin Powell's statement in Gulf War I that to continue the destruction of the Iraqi troops would be unchivalrous.
Of course, this passes over the problem that chivalry has no exact counterpart in Islam outside of Romantic poetry.
I lived three years in CA and had no such experiences. But then I was in comparatively conservative Sacramento, not LA or the Bay Area.
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