Common Courtesy

A little while ago I was parking my car in the underground car park of a major department store in my town. I was a little frustrated as I had to wait for a middle-aged woman to park her large car and get out of my way.

As I waited for the lift to take me to the ground level this same lady approached me. There were other people around – even some some officials of the department store – yet she chose to speak to me (I had come from work and was in a suit so I probably looked reasonably approachable).

She asked me very nicely if I could tell her how to get to a particular bank in the town. I started to try to explain, but it was not easy to give unambiguous directions. At that moment the lift arrived, so I simply said - “Look – I'll show you”.

We made polite small talk as I walked her out of the lift, through the store and out into the town. I then walked with her the short distance until the bank in question was in sight.

The lady thanked me profusely and told me I was a “gentleman”. Well I like to think that I am a gentleman but I started to ask myself about my motivation for this small act. I have stated before that I think that Women should be served and obeyed by men, but was this act the servile obeisance of a submissive man towards a dominant Woman, or was it rather, an act of common courtesy of one stranger to another?

Would I have done the same for a man? The answer is almost certainly not, though I don't think the situation would have arisen had the stranger been a man. For one thing a man would have bee less likely to ask – certainly not before actually getting into the town – and secondly I would have felt it easier to give directions to a man somehow.

Common courtesy, chivalry or subservience?