Oh Belly,

For the same reasons...

It's acceptable for a women to slap a man in the face if he says something she finds offensive and it is not acceptable for a man to do the same.

A man turning up to a friends place doesn't have to bring a little present.

Men can ignore each other's birthdays.

A bloke can mock his mates thinning hair and expanding gut, but women don't laugh at each others saddle bags, so it's best not to do the same to a woman.

Women can get a calculator out to work out the bill at a restaurant, but if a guy does it he's cheap/anal.

Some things just are. Different circumstances require different behaviour. Gender is just one determiner.

For example, on an internet forum, one is free to mock people mercilessly and pit one against the other, tell outrageous lies, create drama and entertainment. It's accepted that nobody takes any stake in what anonymous strangers post for their own amusement, so nobody is hurt.

Do this in a pub and eventually you'll get your head smashed in.

Do this at a dinner party with people you like and value (and who also appreciate when you're being sincere and when you are joking) and people will laugh and enjoy and join in the frivolity.

Anyway, I think on the whole, women have more social rules than men. There are more rules and they are more complicated. So on the whole I think women are way more polite and considerate of each other, and consequently of men.

But men think they are doing something extraordinary by holding a door open, when half the much more extraordinary stuff women will think to do for men goes unnoticed; It's not expected and sometimes not wanted or even quite annoying frankly.

'young ladys take mens manners so much for granted they demand right of way in cars when plainly they should give way.'

Haha Belly. That's just an evolutionary thing. A co-dependence.

If a woman decided she had right of way she was probably quite attractive. Years of being given right of way from men who allow her to walk buy them in order to enjoy the wonderful view.

Hot chicks walk around in a bubble of privilege. A million little interactions with men in thrall of them every day can do that to a person. Getting no speeding tickets, walking to the front of the line in clubs, being put on a pedestal every day so some man may peek up their skirt.

It all ends in tears when they get old though. Nothing can replace that lifetime of attention and preference that suddenly vanishes.

Then, of course, there are some sad men who whine on perpetually about women, regardless of the niceties of manners.

Its really quite simple Belly. In many marriages there are little
power games going on, between husbands and wives.

Many males eventually realise that if they give in, their
sex life might improve a bit. Its called pussypower.

So alot of married blokes simply land up doing what they are told.

'here are some sad men who whine on perpetually about women'

There are Gielgud, though I don't think you need talk only of yourself and antiseptic, no-matter how you miss him so.

Manners, manners, as a smart man once said, manners are for people with nothing better to do.

Irrelevant to the forum here, but then so are manners.

LOL (OLO) would be a much richer place but for the tedious niceties and faux concern for each others health and well being cluttering up discussions with such cringe worthy flanders-ness.

BTW: Severin ('end of argument'). Only an arrogant woman such as yourself would have such bad manners to end a discussion thus.

It would also be more hygienic not to kiss each other, and not to shake hands, though I'm sure you don't need to worry about either of these things. The obsession with germs along with the overuse of antibiotics are far more hazardous than the occasional upset stomach.

Yabby,

I'm sure you do what you're told Mr Richard Bucket! The Bermuda Triangle (Think of a well forested map of Tassie) is well documented trap for those who are beggers in the bedroom or oblivious to the carnal desires of their wives. Call her bluff is my advice. She'll be begging you to bend her over that toilet seat in no time! Or maybe the mail man. Any partnership based on power games is doomed to failure.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the back pain from bending over to lift the seat up and down, the thrills and spills from those with bad aim infecting the seat when it is left down, the late night drunken trips to the toilet that result in urinating on the lid someone has thoughtlessly left down. The health issues with putting the seat and lid on the toilet are as endless as the enduring chivalry of men who sacrifice so much to pander to womens irrational need for 'hi Gene' and 'neatness'.

I also think it's a measure of the lack of equality we have in our homes that there aren't any stand-up urinal troughs in most bathrooms. Maybe the designers of houses are coy 'stall men' like CJ.