October 20, 2006

• Manners & Etiquette.

  
  

  I was thinking and observing the male species the other day, and wondering what kind of man is absolutely suitable for my taste. And I have to say, MANNERS & ETIQUETTE is one of the main key ingredient. Nothing says “I adore you” more than a man that knows how to take care of his woman, and constantly putting their woman first –because that’s just manners. One may argue that, “Hey, for some preppy guys, they actually have manners downpack and when they act on it, it’s not a conscious acknowledgement, rather, manners is just one of their habits. They’re not really putting you first in their heads.” However, I think that’s a darn good habit to have. Can you imagine, a man that doesn’t even need to work his brains to put you first, but his intuition (habits) is already set to cater you. Now how many other good things can you get out of this man? Let me just say, rudeness and lack-of-judgment is a total turn-off.

  
  

  1) Eating First. (This one sort of goes for both sexes though.) Just because your entree came first, doesn’t mean your uncontrollable desire to devour that plate of food should surface at the very sight of it. It’s not like the other person isn’t hungry either. Chances are, you were both engaged in a conversation while waiting for the food to come, so now either the conversation is diminished because somebody is eating, or the other person is talking AND eating at the same time. Another scenario would be that the woman excuses herself to go to the washroom, and while she was gone, the food came and the man just starts chowing down at it. I’m sorry, but this just seems plain rude to me. It’s like, you can’t even wait 5 minutes? What are you, an animal?

  
  

  2) Picking at your food. And let me emphasize on the word, “YOUR” food. Alot of the times, men just assume that women eat like little birds and just go “oh! I’m full!”, after a few nips at it. WRONG! We eat, well the healthy women EAT! And sure, sometimes we actually don’t finish the food on our plates, and that’s when we do offer it to the man to avoid wasting food. But assuming that we don’t want our food, or won’t finish it, and quickly after you (the man) finishes your plate and moves into ours (the woman) is UNBELIEVABLY RUDE. It’s not even about sharing. If you (the man) kindly askes the woman to save him a piece at the end, or if she can’t finish it to pass it to him, that would be nice. But don’t assume that I’m not hungry and then shove your fork into my spaghetti. If you want some of my food, fucking ASK!

  
  

  3) Cellphone usage. (Again, this can relate to both sexes.) I probabyy don’t have to explain this one very much, but it’s rude to answer cellphones while you’re on a date, dinner, movie or anywhere else that is exclusive to two people. Reasonably, I can understand that sometimes there are important people and calls coming in (and that the world doesn’t revolve around me), and that’s okay! Just aslong you don’t spend more than 10 minutes on a phone call. If you do need more time, just slightly take the phone away from your ear and apologize and state that you need more time. I think that’s pretty understandable. But when people just go on and on as if I’m suddenly oblivious to the world, and don’t inform or apologize, what do you think I’m thinking? Yeah, you’re a total scumbag.

  
  

  4) Spitting on the floor. I think this one has to be the worst one that I’ve observed. Thugs at my school spit on the floor all the time. And sometimes, I happen to walk behind them and I guess they don’t realized that I’m speeding up behind them and suddenly they cock their head to the side and let out some of their spit. I literally had to stop on my tippy toes and come to a complete halt, because if I didn’t, I would’ve stepped in their nasty spit and get it all over my shoes. You don’t (and I hope not) spit your gum on the ground, so why do you spit your saliva on the ground? Make use of the trash can, please.

  
  

  5) Opening doors. I hate to see this happen, but I see it all the time. If a man has a total opportunity to open the door for a woman, but decides to walk in first and let the door slam behind the woman is just totally wrong. As a matter of fact, I always hold open doors whenever I can — because it’s just manners. So why is it so hard for boyfriends to do that? (But I do give credit to the boyfriends that do, how lucky of your girlfriend). As I see it, it’s not “being whipped” or “being strictly polite”, but a gesture of caring and thinking about other people. It’s like, you WANT to take care of people you know, and strangers alike. It always makes me feel good when guys I don’t know at school opens the door for me and gestures me in.

  
  

  Guys, do you agree with these notions? Do you think they’re just all overrated and girls (or me) shouldn’t read into these things too much? Girls, are you the VICTIMS in these situations? Please share your stories!

  • 5:13 pm
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