(Picture: Feministing.com founding editor Jessica Valenti at her wedding)
In Monday's class Katherine wanted to know how to draw the line between being a "gentleman" (doing things like opening a door for a woman, which is also called chivalry) and being sexist.
In order to explore the answer to this question, please think about where chivalry comes from (it didn't always exist) and why women and men often like playing roles in which the man is chivalrous and the woman is "pampered."
What are the intentions behind chivalry? Is it okay for feminists to enjoy chivalry?
chivalry came originally from the code of conduct of nights in the middle ages. the code had little to no references to women, yet today it means the word means something that has everything to do with women. in order to understand it we must first define it, in my mind, it mean having respect for women, more so than you do for men. men are to be seen as something to compete with, women not so much. that difference means that we need to respect women, not challenge them in everything thing as we do men, the result of this may be as small as opening a door, or helping an old lady cross a busy signal-less street, but the intention of it is to honor the woman, not to make her feel inferior. In fact it is quite the opposite, it is to elevate the woman to a status above the petty squabbles of men. anyone can enjoy chivalry, so long as they dont then turn around and demand equal treatment, then complain when a man slaps them on the ass, or tried to belly bump them.
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