Women are weaker!! And I really do not understand how people can not accept that. I open doors for anyone when I have the opportunity, but honestly if I see a guy open a door walk through and let it close behind him when someone like an elderly women or man is behind him.. I would think to myself (how unkind). I have rejected guys pretty badly after seeing things like that. (Well two guys that I can think of.. and I told them why I didn't really want to get to know them as well).
Well that's just a matter of common decency. One should always take the elderly into consideration in the first place, and it wouldn't hurt him to turn his head for a second to make sure no one is behind him.
But back to my point.. women pretty much are weaker. During pregnancy for example.. lifting heavy objects can cause miscarriages and some studies imply that it affects your fertility even when not pregnant (it also affects male fertility but they can lift heavier things before an effect is seen). The average woman is weaker than the average man, so helping her carry things & open things is just sensible.
In many communities, the woman is the stronger sex. We are by no means frail as a gender. Even if some particular woman is weak, then yes, the sensible thing would be for anyone to help lift and/or open things. That's not a gender-specific task.
At the same time, if a frail man needs help lifting or opening something, he'll most likely be told to man up and get some strength. So why can't women do the same, or find some other means to perform the task on their own? Do I need to ask a man every time I need to open a pickle jar? No - I grab a knife, puncture the lid, and open that sucker.
For something as simple as opening a door... as long as you are not busy I think that everyone should be able to do that for anyone. There are circumstances when you should even go out of your way to do it. If the person is very old, or has children, or is pregnant, or disabled, or just has a lot of things in their hand. But in general I think it is just the polite thing to do, regardless of the circumstances. Once the door is easy to open.
This I agree with. There's no excuse for someone to just let the door shut in front of someone, especially if that person can't open it his or herself. Again, that's just common decency. I would definitely look down on a person for a moment if they couldn't display that small show of consideration.
I know some doors are hard to open though, that happened to me last week, I was trying to get into a shop and I could not because the door was just waay to difficult to open. A random lady stopped and opened the door for me, she was a lot bigger than me.. I was grateful .
This is what I meant earlier. All this chivalry-is-for-men crap is getting in the way of people just being courteous to other people. The genders are too busy placing roles (Men take care of the physical stuff; Women take care of the emotional or logical). Just do what you're ABLE to do.
There are men can cook, take care of children, and be emotionally open. There are women can work, lift heavy things, and throw a killer left hook.
So what does it mean that men can do these things and women can do those things? NOTHING. Just DO what needs to be done, regardless of who you are.