New York City subway – 1940’s. Photo by Stanley Kubrick.
When asked the question, “What’s wrong with this picture?” any Southern gentleman would immediately know the answer. In truth, I suspect even the men sitting down while the woman is standing also know the answer. Judging by the look on her face, the woman clearly knows the answer. Is she thinking about the legendary good manners of Southern culture?
LOL she is giving him the death stare! Anyway living in and growing up in NYC you see this all the time. People do not get up from their seat at all i think it has to do with the “Me” culture that has been flowing about. Which makes chivalry something you read in books. Its a sad state of affairs people have forgotten to care for one another. But not all of us are like that, i know for me when i see someone who needs to sit an elderly person or a woman carrying a baby i would most definitely give up my chair. Unfortunately here in NY you do not really see that anymore. This is the reason why decided to leave NY and i never looked back. At times i wonder why people want to come here so bad when its not a place to live. Its expensive, not a place to raise kids, noisy and cramped.
I would much rather be down South and stretch my legs!! And i’m a native NY’er
Good afternoon, Jose, and thanks for stopping by.
I have been to New York twice in my life – when I was eleven years old, my parents took us to see the World’s Fair in 1964. I went again when a company I was working for (Emerson Electric) sent me to visit one of their plants in Long Island (I was hired to help move operations from there down here to Florida). I’d have to say that the thing that impressed me the most was that everybody seemed to use the horn on their car as much as they did the brake or steering wheel. That was a completely foreign concept to me – down here, we mostly just use the horn to tap out a quick “hello” when we see someone we know.
Again, great to hear from you, sir!
Typical Yankees! I normally don’t believe in stereotypes but in this case it seems they may be true. Yankees as a rule are rude, whiny, and generally a pain in the ass!! They need to keep there rude selves up north and not bother us Southern gentlemen. A little advice for our Yankee “friends”- people shouldn’t hear your stupid conversation while you talk on your phone or talk to others in a restaurant. Only you and the listener should understand what is being said.
Even Yankees should have known and displayed better manners in the 1940s. Today, though, traditional manners and gentlemanly behavior have come under attack by modern feminists. Holding a door open, allowing ladies first, saying “ma’am,” and other courtesies can easily earn the unreconstructed gentleman a severe rebuke.
Even though it makes people happier, gentlemanly behavior is rejected by feminists as “benevolent sexism.” Here are links to two posts, with brief quotations, on the subject:
http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com/2012/11/benevolent-sexism.html
Quoting from the post: Murray points out that “benevolent sexism” means gentlemanly behavior. He entitles his post: “The bad news is that gentlemanly behavior makes people happy.” …
Connelly/Heesacker have discovered that when men behave like gentlemen toward women it produces “life satisfaction” for both parties.
They conclude that gentlemanly behavior is “dangerous” and that we must intervene “to reduce its prevalence.”
By their pseudo-reasoning, the positive benefits that accrue to men and women when men act like gentlemen provide a false sense of satisfaction that undermines the feminist revolution.
It’s not a new idea. It echoes an old idea that we owe to Karl Marx. Translated it means that “benevolent sexism” is the opiate of the masses.
http://malcolmpollack.com/2012/11/29/the-beatings-will-continue-until-morale-improves/
When I was little and my mother was teaching me manners, she often used to tell me about a time when she and my father-to-be were dating back in the 1940s. One day, she said, instead of holding a door open for her as he had always done before, he walked through first and let it slam shut in her face. Well, she was quite shocked, to say the least. He explained that she had never said “thank you” to him for the courtesy, so he assumed she did not appreciate it. She learned a good lesson in manners that day. And I was brought up to be the most “thanking-est” person you ever met.