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Ladys First
For a long period before the 1960s, women were considered to be the weaker sex,just as Shakespeare said inHamlet:“Frailty, thy name is women.”In contrast, men were regarded the stronger and the dominant sex.In this light man should undertake the duty to adopt a protective attitude toward the so-called weaker sex.This implied that men should help women on and off with their coats, light their cigarettes,open the doors for them to get on and off the wagon, train, bus, etc. Or to enter the houses.
Have you ever seen the movie “Titanic”? Well, when the ship was sinking,it was the women who had the right to get on the lifeboats first,just because men had the responsibility for taking care of and protectingwomen!This could lead to the conclusion that the custom “Lady First” was developed out of respect in appearance,but in fact it was kind of looking down upon women in nature.
In the 1960s, women began to challenge this tradition. Just as one lady put it,“Historically, men should walk on the outside of the pavement so as to prevent the lady’s dress from being spoilt by mud splashed by a carriage. Today a man is supposed to walk on the outside side.A man should walk where he wants to. So should a woman.If out of love and respect, he actually wants to take the blows,he should walk on the inside, because that’s where muggers are hiding these days.”This shows that to treat a woman as inferior justbecause she is a female is not only insulting but also out of step with contemporary American culture.Women may go to the restaurants Dutch treat.They may refuse such words as chairman, businessmen, policeman.Instead they prefer chairperson, businessperson, police or cop just to show that they are equal in every respect with males!
