Tea at Trianon: If Chivalry is Dead, Did Women Kill It?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

If Chivalry is Dead, Did Women Kill It?

From Culturcidal:

So, before I dig any further into this, I want to note that like many Southerners, I was taught to be chivalrous from a young age – and it stuck. I open car doors and pull out chairs for women. I even walk on the side of the street closer to the road, so that if a car jumps the curb, I will be the one hit. This article discusses men giving up seats for women on the subway. Well, the last time I was on the subway in NYC (which has admittedly been quite a while because I now like to Uber while I’m there), it was crowded and I gave up my seat for a woman. In other words, I am someone who grew up with the habit of being chivalrous, and it still continues to this day.
However, it’s also worth noting that over the course of my entire life, I’ve had one girlfriend who genuinely seemed to appreciate chivalrous behavior, another that seemed to expect it and a third girl I only went on a couple of dates with, who (politely, mind you), basically said she didn’t see the point of chivalry. Beyond that, the reactions to it from women could best be described as complete indifference.
Similarly – and understandably – most men don’t care about it either, and some guys even think chivalrous men are chumps, which is a result of listening to feminist women who basically tell anyone who listens some version of, “Women can do anything men can do, except better!”
Well, if that’s true, then women should be able to get their own seats on the bus and subway without men needing to worry about how it plays out for them, right? Of course, it’s even worse than that because a lot of men believe there’s a possibility that a woman may be genuinely OFFENDED if they behave in a chivalrous way toward them. How realistic is that outside of Berkeley or some Manhattan feminist enclave? It’s hard to say, although several men in the comments section discussing this article on X talked about bad experiences they had, so that seems to be at least a somewhat realistic concern men genuinely have. (Read more.)