MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

I gave an interview yesterday regarding the place of “chivalry” in modern society…whether it is a dead concept, and how a “gentleman” should respond when his polite behaviour is met with derision by a woman. But what is chivalry?  In his study of Chivalry,   The Broad-Stone of Honour ,   Kenelm Henry Digby   offered the following definition: 'Chivalry is only a name for that general spirit or state of mind which disposes men to heroic actions, and keeps them conversant with all that is beautiful and sublime in the intellectual and moral world.'   The Oxford dictionary defines chivalry as: courteous behaviour, especially that of a man towards women: he still retained a sense of chivalry towards women . While 50 years ago it was normal for a man to pay his date’s way, hold the door open for a woman and pull her chair out at a restaurant, today’s etiquette is not so simple.  As I was quoted in the article in The West Australian: “I get p...

Les Demoiselles de Rochefor t : Catherine Deneuve & Francoise Dorleac, 1967 I was sitting with a few girlfriends, or should that be “women friends”, the other day chatting over a few nice Margaret River sauvignon blanc wines.   We were discussing an article which had appeared in a weekend newspaper about the French title “Mademoiselle” and how the French feminist movement was defending a woman’s right, irrespective of age or marital/partnership context to use the rather elegant title historically reserved for a young, beautiful girl. Catherine Deneuve (date unknown) It would mean that we women usually referred to as “Madame”who are married/partnered, divorced, never married, or no longer blooming with youth could join Catherine Deneuve, and the late Coco Chanel in being referred to as Madamoiselle.  As the writer advised, in the absence of a neutral gender, the “Ms” that we have had in Australia since the 1970s as dictated by the feminist movement of th...