I believe quite passionately in equality of the sexes and yet I can't help but get a little steamed when a man jumps into a seat on a crowded train while I have to continue standing. Perhaps this makes me a hypocrite or a "poser", as the kids say -- or used to say when I was in high school. I'm not familiar with what the current label would be.
Regardless, I continue to exist a walking contradiction. A feminist on a soap box who shoots dirty looks at the construction worker who "stole my seat". The thing is, it isn't my seat just because I'm a woman. I'm about six feet away and the construction worker, who has probably been on his feet all day, is conveniently located right next to it.
You might chivalry has somehow made me unjustifiably entitled. As David Foster Wallace said, "A child who exited a womb inconvenienced." (He didn't say this with me in mind, but I might as well throw a little literary snobbery into this for the hell of it.)
I don't mean to rip chivalry. I suppose it was developed with some good intentions in mind: to protect one's property; keep the dings off the new wife, right? Of course, I kid. Chivalry was a knights' code. It actually has less to do with opening doors and dropping your jacket over puddles than you might think.
According to a French historian (Leon Gautier) an example of this code reads, "Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them." I know all this info makes me look smart, but in reality, I knew none of this without Wikipedia. In fact, the difference between what I knew about chivalry itself when I began typing and when I linked Leon Gautier's name to his page on Wikipedia is pretty big. I was a dumbass before. I'm a little less of one now.
Anyhow, I digress. I'm not speaking of some centuries-old code. I'm not speaking, in fact. I'm typing about that old-fashioned idea that we have that men must protect women. I suppose it's not so far-fetched. Biologically, men tend to be stronger in that "I can bend a steel rod with my bare hands" kind of way. It's one of those scientifically documented facts which I can't easily deny in my typical devil's advocate way.
However, I hate being told to walk on the inside of a sidewalk (a weird one I've only recently heard) so that a man can protect me from ... whatever comes at you from the outside of a sidewalk? I am more than willing to hold the door if I get there first. I can order my own damn dinner. And I dislike being looked down upon for being the "weaker sex".
But I cannot deny the fact that I want to sit down on the train. Because sometimes I'm wearing heels. Because they make me look like a pretty girl.
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