Chivalry is Just a Euphemism for Sexism

Yes, all women.  Yes, all men.  Yes, all humans.  We are all in the world together, and we all participate in it.  Even when we don’t want to and don’t mean to, there we are.  Participating.  Even when we fight the system, rage against the machine, and work diligently to change ourselves and others, there is still just so much cultural crap ingrained in all of us, that it is literally impossible not to be sexist, racist, homophobic, classist, ageist, and pretty much anything elseist.  I am.  You are.  It might not be entirely our faults, but we all are.

In fact, even when you are well-intentioned, it can still perpetuate a system of oppression, violence, and general inequality.  Take chivalry, for example.  I have seen posts from the same people who swear that women and men should be treated equally, that then also rail against any man who would allow a woman to open a door for him.  Wait, what?  I thought women and men should be treated equally?  And yet women themselves so often play into this “damsel in distress” image that has been given to them by society, and they like it.  Well, you can’t lose the oppression and keep the benefits.

The very idea of chivalry, that women are weak, and in need of protection and “saving,” is just another way of keeping the female human in her traditional role of property.  And do NOT tell me chivalry is about “respecting a woman” and is not sexist.  If it is actually about non-sexist respect, then women should be able to do it for men as well.  Doesn’t respect go both ways?  Can a woman even be chivalrous toward a man?  Or is that an oxymoron?

Here is the dictionary definition of “chivalry.”

1. The combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight, esp courage, honor, justice, and a readiness to help the weak
2. courteous behavior, esp towards women
3. the medieval system and principles of knighthood
4. knights, noblemen, etc, collectively

So there you have it.  Chivalry is a set of good qualities that you have in order to help the weak.  And it is courteous behavior toward women.  In other words, built into the very definition of the term, is the fact that women are weak.  And women are not weak.  They are generally physically smaller than men, but they are not weak.  Not the women I know, anyway.  And we are not cavepeople anymore.  We don’t need to choose the physically strongest folk to go out and kill saber tooth tigers.  We have cranes, and guns, and electronic garage door openers.  We have forklifts, and elevators, and Roombas.  We don’t even have to do our own physical fighting anymore!  According to a commercial I saw for a recent documentary, even strong dudes like Hugh “Wolverine” Jackman use giant robots to fight now.  And I know it was true, because the word “real” was in the title.  But let’s be honest.  Once the pulley was invented, women stopped needing men for feats of strength.