5 Easy Ways to be Chivalrous

Happy New Year and welcome to 2017! Living in DC and frankly living in this generation has opened my eyes to the disastrous state of affairs that is chivalry or the lack thereof. I ride the metro every single day and see how manners are lacking from both sexes. While I consider myself a “feminist”, nothing makes my heart pitter patter more than the little details that lie in men behaving courteously to women. Today I want to chat about some easy way to be chivalrous.

Before we begin, this is not about male bashing. Because both of the sexes have been failing miserably. Many men still practice the art of opening doors, pulling out chairs etc but we, women often respond negatively to it. Ladies- it is not weakness. A man doing things for you does not mean that you cannot do it yourself. We are strong. We are awesome. And as women we deserve to be treated as Queens. As Queens though we must act like it. Let us hold ourselves accountable for how we haven’t allowed men to be men.

“Chivalry is dead” is often shouted from the rooftops. But do we even know what being chivalrous means. We no longer live in Medieval times where there was a certain code of conduct and behavior for Knights. This led to a certain code of conduct and behavior for men in treating women as well.

Here we are in 2017 and here are my easy ways to be chivalrous

1. Open doors for women and hold doors for women. This is a no brainer. Walk slightly ahead of the woman, open the door and then step to the side so she can walk through. If you see a woman walking behind you, there is no shame in waiting a short amount of time to hold the door open for her as well. Women- allow men to open the door for you and always say thank you. ALWAYS. Manners go both ways. Never get into the habit of thinking it must happen (even though it should!) making you unappreciative of the gesture. Ladies also don’t forget that if you see a man carrying things or struggling for the door for any reason, help him out!
2. Walk on the side closest to the street. This is a sign of protection from either cars splashing or jumping the curb as well.
3. Make sure your lady or lady friends get home safely. It is an easy text or even a phone call that means a lot!
4. Pull out the chair. When going out to dine, make sure that you pull out her chair before you sit down and even better bonus is pushing the chair in once she does sit. 
5. On public transportation, offer your seat to women standing. This is a personal one for me because I can count on all phalanges and tarsals how many times I have seen men sitting comfortably on the train while women are standing up desperately trying to hold onto the bars. At least offer it up. More times than not, I am sure most will decline the offer.

I would love to hear what everyone thinks about chivalry in general as well as my easy ways to be chivalrous list. Let me know below!