Essay II
Chivalry is dead to me but equality is immortal.
Long story short, I believe chivalry is dead and equality is immortal. I believe a lover should afford comfort and ease to his beloved because of love and not because of sex or gender.
Chivalry is dead to me but equality is immortal.
 |
| "Knight in Shining Armor" so they say. Puh-lease! Those days are over! We should be each others knights, defending each others' rights. Taken from Google. |
I remember this one time in college, I think it was a lecture of sorts and the auditorium was packed. Even when I decided to go to the venue early, the hall was packed. I moved around looking for any place where I can sit on. Luckily, I was able to hunt a seat down near the front. A little while later a girl passed by, also looking for a seat. A male acquaintance was standing by the wall, near my seat, and told me to vacate my seat for “the lady”. I told him no. I found this seat first and she and I had equal opportunity to look for seats and I just happened to see the seat first. He insisted I stand because she was a girl and I was a guy. Good grief. Chivalry. Ugh.
I may come off as undignified in the earlier paragraph but I made my stand. I was tired, eager to listen to the lecture and came earlier. She was the same. Why should I give up my seat? I didn't know her personally but I saw her around and I think we had a class together. I was sure she wasn't sick, had a physical disability or pregnant. Why should I give up my seat just because of an old notion of chivalry?
For the record, I would have given up my seat on the basis of need or want. We were in equal footing at that point so I see no point to give her special treatment. I value sex and gender equality and equal opportunity very highly.
I see a problem of three conflicting matters here: the now general and accepted notion of sex and gender equality, the chivalrous notion that women should have special treatment because it was a man’s duty to provide that and the tendency of some women to use only what is beneficial in the earlier two. These three were in play in the earlier story. I’ll focus on the latter two.
First, chivalry should be dead in the mistaken notion that it is a man’s duty to provide and serve a woman on the basis of the shallow fact that simply she is a woman. It implies that a woman, by nature, is weak and needs to be helped by a man and I find that offensive. Second, the female in the story only wanted the benefits from both chivalry and equal opportunity without any regard to the indignity of the former and the responsibilities of the latter. When women clamored for their rights, the idea was equality and not special treatment. Though special consideration must be afforded them because of the unequal position they were in for the most part. This is done to balance the scales so they are able to rise into a position of equal footing, in terms of providing them safe passage into opportunities and protection of the law. We also have to admit that biologically, males are stronger than females. The special laws and policies exist to balance both sexes. We should not give special treatment because of an outdated and ridiculous notion. The situation is not the ideal yet but we’ll get there.
First, chivalry should be dead in the mistaken notion that it is a man’s duty to provide and serve a woman on the basis of the shallow fact that simply she is a woman. It implies that a woman, by nature, is weak and needs to be helped by a man and I find that offensive. Second, the female in the story only wanted the benefits from both chivalry and equal opportunity without any regard to the indignity of the former and the responsibilities of the latter. When women clamored for their rights, the idea was equality and not special treatment. Though special consideration must be afforded them because of the unequal position they were in for the most part. This is done to balance the scales so they are able to rise into a position of equal footing, in terms of providing them safe passage into opportunities and protection of the law. We also have to admit that biologically, males are stronger than females. The special laws and policies exist to balance both sexes. We should not give special treatment because of an outdated and ridiculous notion. The situation is not the ideal yet but we’ll get there.
Long story short, I believe chivalry is dead and equality is immortal. I believe a lover should afford comfort and ease to his beloved because of love and not because of sex or gender.
