Whatever happened to chivalry?

Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life.

- Olive Penderghast (Easy A)

What happened to chivalry?
Are the men who hold the door for a lady gone? Or the gentlemen who offer his seat to an old lady a never-again-scenario?

Is it dead? Gone with the wind?

I remember King Arthur and the knights of the round table every time I hear the word chivalry and that one thing the poet Sir Walter Raleigh did for Queen Lizzy I. Sir Walter Raleigh sacrificed his cape by covering a mud puddle to prevent Lizzy I from soiling her shoes. (Is nicknaming an English Queen a crime? Hope not.)

Today, chivalry refers more to manners. So is chivalry (manners) gone? I think not. Chivalry is like your old jersey lying around your room ready to be used anytime. The thing is you evolved, you aged and has not the time for sports and you're too big to fit your jersey. The thing is you don't need it anymore. The same thing happened to chivalry.

At one point, feminism killed chivalry. Women don't want to be regarded as the weaker sex. In the time of fairy tales and chivalrous kings and knights, women are considered delicate so they ought not to do a strenuous job. Women's role at that time is merely to produce children and stay at home and knit. Nowadays women manage companies and wear corporate attires and run around in heels!

Yes, ladies. We killed our noble men. We called out for equality and empowerment and gradually the chivalric privileges we enjoyed are gone with the wind. So stop ranting about it, just like what I'm doing now. Haha.

However, courtesy replaced chivalry. Well, it's still chivalry but much lighter. Nowadays, men understand the female species much better. We can even be best friends with males. Men no longer feel compelled and women no longer expect deference to them because of their sex. I mean this is the modern world and as the world progress, our norms are changed to adapt to the...well...the changes...prior changes.

So, unfortunately chivalry is dead and rotten. Reality bites. But manners and courtesy? Still intact. I hope. That is why I love to escape from the real and go to the time of Jane Austen where men used to stand when a lady leaves the room and take off their hat when a woman approaches.


Unfortunately, they only exist in books. Mushy old books.