21 Ways to be a Gentleman in the 21st Century

Michael says:
Wed, 15th Jul 20092:52 am 

Dear Melanie,

I recently stumbled upon this site and find it very interesting, especially this article. As a loving boyfriend, I am always looking for better ways to be a gentleman. However, I was shocked at how narrow-minded some of these views are, and have a pleasant beef to have with you over a few of them, if you don’t mind…

3. Don’t blow her off for video games. Real sports games? Acceptable with a forewarning. Impromptu Madden tournament? Not so much.

I roll my eyes and want to curse everyone who has this mindset. That videogames are some sort of evil concoction, and real sports are something acceptable. Another one similar to this is “Pay attention to her when watching The Game” What if I don’t give a rat’s flying ass about sports? Let’s take a wildcard: what if my true passion is videogames? Geez, can’t play games when the girlfriend comes around. Then she seems more like a nuisance, and both of us know it! Instead of close-minded approaches, like “no videogames, yes sports”, you should try something like, “try not to get too caught up with a hobby when the girl is around and blatantly ignore her. But better yet, it can be fun for both of you if you can get her involved!” This also happens to be related to my next beef:

8. Let her watch “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” or whatever girly show she likes without mocking it the entire way through. Bonus points for putting it on your DVR.

Ok, so we aren’t supposed to play games, and have to check in for other activities, but she gets to drag us in to watch some mindless twaddle on TV, without us complaining? I’m thinking of a word…”double”…and wait, here comes another…”standard”. No matter how many articles I read on males and females being nicer to each other, the males are ALWAYS EXPECTED to try harder. Since when did the notion of equality ever ring through a relationship? A relationship consists of two different people, meaning they have different likes, dislikes, etc. Just because they are “dating” does not mean they get to ruin each others lives. Making your date do something they don’t want to do, over and over, will just make them more and more upset until something bad happens. Instead, you can still do stuff you like to do on your own in that fashion, but the two of you should should do stuff you BOTH enjoy doing together, and turns out it might make both of you happy in the end. Last one coming:

9. No, she doesn’t look fat in that dress. Yes, even if she does.

For reference, my girl wears about a size 9 pants (and not the kind that give her a muffintop, either) Every time she asks me that, I tell her she is fat. That she’s the fattest thing those pants/dress/whatever have ever seen, she should be arrested for cruel and unusual punishment to fabric. That gets her to know better than to ask stupid, asinine questions like that. She knows that I think she is beautiful, and I let her know it when I want to, which is often enough. Asking if she is fat is the
way to say “Tell me I’m pretty, or else.”, which is pretty douchebaggy if you ask me. This is a trick question, anyway. Girls and their boyfriends are both aware of “how fat” she is, and either way guys answer is horrible. Either the girl is fat, in which case the guy has to be honest and say “yes” at which point will ruin her mood, or cringe and say “of course not” which really doesn’t solve anything because, well, she’s still fat. Obviously this guy sees something in who you are, and loves and accepts you as a person instead of a bathroom scale readout and you should stop trying to get him to clean the undersides of your shoes with his mouth. This really pisses me off when skinny girls ask this, because, well, THEY’RE NOT FAT. They have no reason to ask such a question in the first place.

End of rant. Sorry if that terribly offended anyone, but that’s just my opinion. Otherwise, the rest of the list is decent and boyfriends should follow it better.