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"   Recently, we got to chatting in the Cosmo office about the concept of chivalry. Most of us argue that it isn&amp;#039;t dead, but when it shows up\u2026well, sometimes it makes us feel uncomfortable. Case in point: I&amp;#039;m pregnant and got offered a seat on the subway by a nice older man. I thanked him and told him I was fine standing, but he stood next to me, leaving the seat empty until he got off at the next stop. (I took it after that.) I didn&amp;#039;t need the seat and would have felt bad taking it since he was at least in his 60s. But we ended up having this awkward stand-off for a few minutes where he didn&amp;#039;t seem to feel it was right to sit back down and I didn&amp;#039;t feel it was right to swipe his seat just because I&amp;#039;m growing a baby. Other staffers and their friends have had similar issues: * One had a guy bump into her in a bar and spill her drink. He offered to pay for a new one, but she politely turned him down. Her thought was that she could buy her own drink (even if he did spill it) and she didn&amp;#039;t want to feel obligated to him. It ended up getting kinda awkward with him insisting that he pay for one and her insisting that it was cool. * Another gets a little flustered when men she doesn&amp;#039;t know open the door for her, but then hates it when guys push past her to go through a door first. She&amp;#039;s also found that guys seem to get uncomfortable when she opens the door for them. * And a friend has run into an issue a few times where she insists on splitting the check on a date (because everybody has to work for a living) and the guy ends up thinking she&amp;#039;s not interested. And then it&amp;#039;s just awkward. So, here&amp;#039;s the dilemma: We demand chivalry, because really, it&amp;#039;s awesome, but most of us have been raised to be strong, independent women who feel like we need to do everything by ourselves. When a guy sweetly offers to do something for us, we&amp;#039;re not sure how to react. That said, when a guy doesn&amp;#039;t  open a door for us, elbows us out of the way to claim the last seat on the bus, or doesn&amp;#039;t offer to pay for a date, yeah, we usually end up thinking he&amp;#039;s a little rude.  And yes, we get that that&amp;#039;s a hypocritical statement. What&amp;#039;s your take? Should we just stop fighting these polite gestures and go with it, knowing that it doesn&amp;#039;t make us any less self-sufficient? Or are guys screwed either way? Want more from Korin? Follow her on Twitter @KorinMiller. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/a10958/does-chivalry-make-us-uncomfortable/?click=cos_new>