Where Have All the Gentlemen Gone?

For those of you who tagged me, all two of you, I will be dutifully posting my taggy response in the very near future. But this was on my mind, so it took precedence.

This I started to say at Mister Write Now's Blog and decided to finish it up here:

I was walking toward the office building, after stepping over to the nearby deli for some nosh to go, hands full. A man and a woman were ten paces or so ahead of me. He was of the totally nerdy techie type and she was of the totally nerdy office dumbshit type. She was giggling like a schoolgirl at everything he said. I have no idea what he was saying, but she was clearly making far too much of it, in my estimated opinion. I thought, "I wonder if he's wooing her?" I was walking faster than they were (I guess they were out for a pleasure walk), so by the time we were at the door, I was fairly on their heels. I now knew what he was talking about, which was entirely unentertaining on any level, and decided that, yes, he was trying to impress her with geektalk and she was falling for it.

He opened the door (which opens OUT by the way) for her, held it while she walked through, turned his head aside to glance at my approach, walked through the door and let it close right in my face! Right in my fucking face! That rarely happens to me. Not only am I a woman (not that I think you should do that to a man) but I am a very womanly woman. And I don't expect men to fall at my feet and worship me, but it's clearly presented ALL the time in ALL ways that I am the weaker sex. This is not something that is missed! Oh man, I was just pissed. I stumbled through the door, and managed to catch up with them at the elevator, just as it opened. I half expected him to run in and close the elevator doors before I made it in, but he didn't. He kept up his idiotic talk (which could have been completely made up for all the ditzy head knew) and she kept up her giggling. I saw that he had on a wedding ring. I was sure this woman was not his wife. As I stepped off the elvator at my floor, I was so tempted to say, "I hope you are not thinking about entering into any kind of intimate relationship with this man, because a man is easily measured by how he treats strangers, especially female strangers."

I have noticed, of late, a decline in the gentleman's mindset. I mean the mind of the gentle man. No, I'm not talking about all the fucking fuss about women's lib and how-men-stopped-opening-doors-for-women-because-they-said-they-could-do-it-themselves-thank-you-very-much. That is WAY behind us now and it's high fucking time we stopped using it in a discussion. I have not seen men (of any age) stop behaving in a mannerly way. Until just now. I notice it happening, and this is not young men. Young men are very polite. I had a man in his sixties muscle past me between cars in a parking lot. I know for SURE that this man knew better!

So, give me gentlemen or give me death!

P.S. I am only using the "nerdy" term as a generic adjective, neither being positive nor negative. Only making a point that they were extremely thus, each of them. :)