Chivalry can be taken a bit too far

[Babbylonian]

This is why I always wear body armour when dating.

It has nothing to do with your fetish for dating wives of mercenaries?

 

[gnome]

I see a chainmail/facebook urban legend in the making there... throw together something elaborate about how it started in Chicago in the 20s...

 

[bookitty]

I think it's well-established in this thread that there can be lots of reasons for holding a door for someone. But I assume you don't deny that some men do so for women specifically based on the view that women are entitled to certain social niceties based purely and exclusively on their status as women? That's the attitude that I would define as "chivalry," and I think it can be distinguished from a general gender-neutral politeness, and even from non-gender-neutral romantic/sexual interest (both of which I see no problem with as a motivation for doing nice things for strangers of the opposite sex). I really don't see how it isn't the case that the social norm of chivalry, as distinguished from those other things, carries with it an implicit judgment that women are less able than men to fend for themselves without special assistance. How that isn't a condescending attitude is just beyond me.

In a philosophical sense, it can be seen as condescending and that might be the basis for the myth of the feminist door gorgon. In a practical sense, nearly all of our small courtesies, manners and traditions are based on some out-dated social norm or superstition. Everything from the way a knife is held while cutting meat to putting a penny in a bride's shoe.

Nobody thinks they are actually blessing someone when they say "Bless you" after a sneeze. I've also heard born-again members of my family mock atheists because they supposedly get all bent out of shape when someone says "God bless you." Personally, I've never heard an atheist launch into an anti-god tirade after hearing the phrase from a stranger but it has probably happened. That doesn't mean that atheists in general should be avoided during the flu season.