Knights without the armor?

Got to pass by Modestly Yours again today which I haven't been able to do lately. Interesting discussions there! Ideas are aplenty and diverse, and the way these are tackled, tossed and turned, and made sense of, is wonderful.

One of those that caught my fancy was this comment that followed the post on Modern Manners:

The elevators in the building I work at interest me. There are 71 stories, so they are used a lot. And invariably, the men wait for the women to enter or exit the elevators before they enter or exit. There is an expectation for that behavior. The young men picked it up from the older men who display [chivalry] more naturally. Once one guy is [chivalrous], the others around have to follow suit or risk being seen as a jerks. The same thing happens if a woman walks into a room and one guy stands up to give his seat--the other guys feel compelled to offer as well. But it takes that first guy to act in a way that, apparently, is appealing to both sexes. I say appealing because if there wasn't something about that behavior that was respected, nobody would want to emulate it.

A couple of paragraphs down was this:

So what is the definition and purpose of [chivalry]? If [chivalry] is about protecting what is uniquely feminine and understanding that a woman chooses her man, and that he has to earn her, then it is desperately needed, and is more than common courtesy. It's a recognition that there is something worth cherishing in a woman.

There are other noteworthy points but I'll leave it there. Come and check out Modern Manners for yourself.