The Daily Trojan

[robinturner]

While browsing Feministe, I stumbled upon a link to "Feminism to blame for the death of chivalry". The article contains the kind of reaction that was predictable and understandable coming from old gentlemen in the 1970s but seems rather ingenuous coming from college students in the 21st century. In any case, chivalry was not killed by man-eating feminists; it was killed by the invention of the flintlock.

Anyway, what I wanted to mention was not the content of the article (which was utterly predictable) but the name of the student newspaper in which it appeared: The Daily Trojan. What on earth can a daily Trojan be? Is it some kind of Homeric reference, as in "Achilles was out of sorts because he hadn't had his daily Trojan"? Or is it perhaps an attempt to encourage the use of condoms among the student population? This is laudable, but isn't "daily" taking it a bit too far? That might be OK in the holidays, but in term time students should take a few evenings off a week to write essays and study for exams.

Comments

[sandokai.livejournal.com]

Wow, now that was funny.


I don't fully understand what chivalry even means, but in my city men do let/make women go onto buses first and then they give up their seats on the bus. Is this chivalry?

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

Wow, when I lived in a city and was visibly pregnant, none of the commuters ever gave up a seat for me.

[sandokai.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's culturally influenced....? I am not sure exactly how to describe the predominant culture here. Caribbean and Latino? At any rate, it's very interesting...

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it's culturally influenced. This was in San Francisco in the early 1980s. If I wanted a seat, I had to ride for several stops in the direction opposite the commute, until I got to a station where the train still had empty seats.

[solri.livejournal.com]

In my city, you'd have people falling over each other to give a pregnant woman a seat.

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

And I don't think I'd complain or feel demeaned by it.

[solri.livejournal.com]

Well quite - giving up your seat to a pregnant woman is just like giving it up for someone carrying a child or trying to manage an awkward load of shopping. I do all the above, plus giving up my seat to women who are middle-aged or older, and men who are very noticeably older than me. I don't give up my seat for young, healthy, unencumbered women (especially since in Turkey this would put them in a quandary - here "age before beauty" trumps "ladies first").

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

I would attribute it to politeness, not chivalry, though, and to the fact that you're a human, not a man. I don't ride on buses, but I do hold doors open for anyone who looks encumbered, confused, or slower then I am. I think this includes all the groups you mentioned, plus small children. (Once at the library, a woman scolded her child because I'd held the door for him; I'd have felt better if she'd just prompted him to say 'thank you.')

[solri.livejournal.com]

I share your confusion. I'm quite familiar with chivalry in the Medieval sense: it was a code of conduct observed among knights (hence the etymological relationship with "chevalier", "cavalier", "cavalry", "caballero" etc.) - basically an extended warrior ethic analogous to bushido. PArt of this included appropriate ways of behaving towards women. However, the modern "chivalry" is more a kind of noblesse oblige, I think, and this is why feminists object to it.