h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ooh, please tell me the use of duck and ducky have died out!

I have only be unfortunate enough to meet one person who used that particular term (about 20 yeasr ago), but it was enough!

Alas no - how about asking your MP to make them a capital offence?

I think duck/ducky are generally regarded as rather camp these days, but many of these things are quite regional - there may be somewhere where they are used in normal conversation.

I'll stand well back while you tell a 16 stone catering superpivsor that she's camp!

Been giving this chivalry thing a bit of thought. I've noticed that men and women fall into the following categories:

1) Men and women who don't give a fetid dingo's kidney about it one way or the other.
2) Women who value it and get annoyed at men who aren't chivalrous.
3) Men who value it and get annoyed at women who don't like it.
4) Women who don't like it.
5) Men who aren't chivalrous.

If there's a problem at all, it's that most of us are not brought up to understand what it's all about. For those of us who don't really understand it, it's a bit awkward when we meet someone who likes or expects chivalrous behaviour. It's like encountering an unfamiliar ritual and being expected to join in. If you're not brought up in the culture/tradition/religion then you won't be familiar with the ritual and it won't mean anything to you. In a way it's like innocently strolling into a building with your shoes on an your head uncovered and finding you've deeply offended some people by doing something that seems utterly trivial to you.

Some people are a little bit too ready to be offended (not referring to anyone here, I hasten to add) and should 'chill out'. As long as people are polite and considerate to each other, that should be enough to allow us all to get along.

No, I don´t expect men to have babies. Biology so far sets a border there. But besides that I think we should have equality on all points or no points.

"Then let the women decide what they prefer. Don´t let them have all the good things and none of the bad things."

Men should LET women this or LET them that? Don't you think that sounds rather patronising? As long as men are LETTING women have equality, women are not going to be having equality, are they? It's only when men and women are deciding things for themselves that they'll have equality.

We have had it too good for the last three or four generations. Kids have everything they want, or, if they can't afford it, they aren't stopped from grabbing it where they can. Technology has made a lot of little favours people used to do for each other obsolete.

Once when out with my son I mentioned to him that he ought to open the car door for his girlfriend when out on a date. His reply "Why bother, I'll just get a car with central locking"

See what I mean?

PS - it was said in a semi-jocular fashion, but I still have to remind him at the table to serve the young lady first. He knows really, but doesn't do it naturally.

Ah well, perhaps it doesn't come naturally to him because it isn't natural.

Perhaps it is a good thing to teach boys and men to treat women with this sort of exaggerated respect because their hormones naturally make them so much more, umm, impulsive - even aggressive. Perhaps it developed when "polite society" developed as a way of slowing them down and making them as considerate as girls and women tend to be naturally. That's just a wild guess. I could be quite wrong

Trillian: you mean you actually have to force your son into being a male chauvinist? How sad. And since when can car doors open themselves? Unlock yes, but not open.

My point is, women have aqcuired equality on all the points where it suits them. But on the bad points they still have it better than the men. And that isn´t true equality.

Is that true though, about women having acquired equality on all the points that suit them? In this country, at least, they still get paid less than men for similar types of work. There are far fewer women in top jobs and occupying positions in government. Also, on your military point, men are usually the aggressors who cause and fight wars. If it ever gets to the stage where women are causing the wars and enjoy fighting (as many men undoubtedly do) that will be the time to get them fighting on the front line.

I dont think chivalry is dead, Ill perhaps, disguised in suttle forms,,it is no longer chivalry but,, politeness,,, civility,,, Let us not forget, that chivalry was directed at protecting the weak(Women being considered the weaker sex in those times) And many today would help any person who seemed in need. well not many,,, afew,,, one I'm sure, I would at least. Look nice guys are still out there. And in them the true meaning of chivalry lives on, being nice to people not to get somewhere, not to make urself fell better,, but beacause u know its the right thing to do and if u dont, no one else will and the world will be for naught. I f someone doesnt take a stand agaisnt the creeping feelings of greed and self service that dominate our world today then nothing will mean anything ......

Ravnemaster would like to apoligise for his disjointed ramblings, he just got turned down by the girl he likes and is in a right weird mood.

pay no attention to the guy behind the red curtain
The Ravenmaster

Just read through your last lot of postings - tend to agree all round! I still find the older (than me) generation are more gallant - men and ... women. My other half, who is 15 years older than myself, always insists on walking on the kerbside of the pavement!! We do this sort of dance when we cross the road! I believe this begun when gentlemen walked on the outside so if the contents of a chamber pot was emptied out of over hanging windows (Tudor type architecture) he got it and not the lady!! NB: No, I'm not 400 & something!! He always open the car door for me as well. I do enjoy these little attentions and, afterall,I do play my part: iron & wash his clothes

Alot of men/boys, I think, are afraid to be gallant these days: the girls may laugh at him or, on the other hand, think he is making a pass!! Girls, on the whole & a complete generalisation here, are much tougher than they used to be, in the way they act & speak.

However, my daughter (23) thinks nothing of her boyfriend doing his equal share of things, but insists on him paying her a few courtesies, I actually think she's taught him a few things!

Warbling finished for now. Ravenmaster, as my mum always said, "there's plenty more fish in the sea" - trouble is they're nearly all bloaters keep smiling.

PS:
My grandad, born & bred in London, used to say "duck" to all the ladies. Here in Northamptonshire, most of the hard core locals continue to say "m'duck".

What every happened to "Fanny Adams" - yes, I know modern day language has changed so the initials now mean something else, but ... why?
Shirps

Women don´t start wars? Go to a bar and watch how women will go to their bf and claim another guy hit on them. Just to get a fight started. But don´t get me wrong, I hate the military. What I don´t like is that women try to get equality on the good things(not wanting to say fi they´ve got it) and people let them do that without making a demand that they should also have as many female garbage people as men and so on. And about letting, well here it was the men that voted to give women the right to vote. I´d say that was letting.

We women are not ALL like that
Shirps

Maybe not, but somebody on here said that all men were like that. So I just turned it around. Besides, the whole women liking men in uniform isn´t helping. If women doesn´t want war, stop having sex with every guy in green.

Shoving people in very broad categories may make it easier to deal with them in some ways, but in other ways it isn't at all helpful. One of the best ways to inflame and outrage people is to make great sweeping generalisations about whole masses of them. Not all women have sex with men in green, not all Arabs ride camels, not all Scots are mean, not all birds fly south for the summer. If you're against war, a good way NOT to stir one up is to make the effort to think of people as individuals and not just a bunch of bad habits.

Here, here! However, sometimes it is necessary to make a generalisation, but this can be softened by adding in brackets the words "sorry, generalisation" or something similar. Yes? As we're talking about chivalry, politeness, courtesy, etc., here, we may as well be all of these things to each other

Did I miss something? What was that reference to Fanny Adams, a few postings back? If anyone's bothered, she was a child murder victim in the 19th Century, who was dismembered, and a story went around the navy that she ended up in their tinned food.

Tea anyone?