The term “feminism” brings a host of feelings on people upon hearing it. Some women wish to be identified as feminists, some are apathetic towards it and others despise it.
Last week I went to Chick-fil-A and as I was walking up the sidewalk, a woman was walking in ahead of me and several feet behind her was a man; they did not appear to have been there together. As they approached the door, the man took an extra step forward and opened the door for the woman who had been in front of him. The woman snipped, “I can open the door myself.” The man looked rather shocked, apologized politely and went inside. The woman then proceeded to wait for the door to close so she could in fact prove her ability to open a door.
I was absolutely floored.
I grew up in what I would consider a very normal family and witnessed my father open nearly every door for my mother. He didn’t open the door for her because he thought my mother was incapable of opening her own door; he opened her door to be polite.
Women, how would you feel if you did something polite for someone and they rejected it? My guess is that you would be at least somewhat offended by their abrupt rudeness. If not, perhaps you should work on your own manners.
While I understand some women wish to be identified as more independent than others, I think there is a fine line between being independent and being an insensitive brat. That being said, do not be under the illusion that I think all women claiming to be feminists are inconsiderate. If it weren’t for the first feminists advocating to win rights for women, I wouldn’t be writing this article, much less be a student at a private university. However, I do feel that some modern feminists have taken feminism to somewhat of an extreme.
Feminists often use the phrase, “Women can do anything men can do.” This is simply not true. Most of us are not cut out for many manual labor jobs men are, nor do many women even desire to do a great deal of work we have grown to expect men to do. Likewise, I somehow doubt we’ll be seeing a severe increase of men in professional scrapbooking anytime soon.
My point is, there are some tasks men are naturally more skilled for and equipped to complete, just as there are certain things women tend to be better at than men. Not because the other gender is physically or mentally incapable of doing these things, but rather just because genders are different.
Women shouldn’t treat these actions as if they are offensive; it wouldn’t kill women to reciprocate the action every now and then to someone else, either.
To refuse – and especially to verbally refute – a kind gesture from someone, regardless of his or her gender, is simply rude.
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