HN Explorer

Ask HN: Is Chivalry Dead?

5 points by thomsopw ↗ HN
Is chivalry dead? In the tech world or the rest of the world?

Have you seen any chivalrous acts of late or have you been the deliverer/ recipient of one?

7 comments

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thetrumanshow
Chivalry is the result of poor estimation of the liquid value of an act of kindness, specifically its ability to be exchanged for adoration from a female.

IMO, engineers have a tendency to calculate the value more precisely. :)

alttab
Value of an act of kindness is much like beauty as it is in the eye of the beholder.

For adoration of a female, one would want to calculate the liquid value she puts on the act - not what you deem the true value is. This is also known as "value based pricing." If one would calculate an act as not worth it, they could be potentially passing up a lucrative opportunity.

Put another way - think of it as the perceived value of cleaning up malware on your own computer, versus maybe what value your grandmother would place on such a task.

Well calculated chivalrous moments are always externally validated.

Go get 'em boys.

iamdave
It's certainly dead in my world, having just broken up with a girl who wanted chivalry to the point of willfully not doing anything for herself, and waiting on me to do it.

Is it dead for everyone? No.

My opinion? It damn well should be. Do it because you want to, not because your SO demands/expects it.

stonemetal
going with the definition :courteous behaviour, esp towards women I don't see how doing stuff for someone else falls under that definition. Being polite and say offering to help(where help is understood to be less than 50% of the work) or allowing them the better half of anything shared sure. Out and Out servitude not so much.

As far as Chivalry as the concept when the word came to mean the above definition, yes, and it was killed by women who were tired of being treated as inferiors. As always cultural norms change, being courteous has an entirely different set of connotations than it did three generations ago.

hammock
Chivalry is not dead.. I was brought up to treat women a certain way and so were all of my peers.

People are right that today women expect greater autonomy these days, to the extent that unless I know she's cool with it ahead of time, I am not going to order for her off the menu.

But gentlemanly behavior is not going to go "out of date" anytime soon

olegious
No. A girl told me that a few weeks ago ;)