Where Have All the Gentlemen Gone?

April 27, 2007

by Dean Ladin

Look around you today. You’ll probably see a guy with his hand completely down his sweats walking around campus. Chances are good that you’ll overhear a guy talking about the hot girl he banged over the weekend. And we all know that you’ll see at least two pairs of boxers because nobody wears jeans over their butt anymore.

This is our new culture. It is the age where guys can be slobs without any backlash. It is the time when we are able to text instead of talk, e-mail instead of write letters, and post videos on YouTube where we make complete assess of ourselves just so we can get a laugh. Incivility seems to be the new name of the game.

Although it’s hard to imagine, there once was a time when men had class. It was when men like Jimmy Stewart ruled Hollywood, and other people modeled themselves after him. It was a time when men would always hold open a door and let a woman pass first. This was the day when a man knew how to communicate, argue, and apologize with class and poise. Moreover, it was an era when a man knew how to keep his mouth closed and his pants up (in more than one way). It was the time when gentleman roamed the earth.

But like the dinosaurs, this species seems to be extinct. I’m not saying that all the gentlemen disappeared in one day. It’s been a gradual decline of the gender that has peaked in the new millennium.

I feel it is time for the male species to reclaim our rightful title of gentleman. We need to look at the past, when a man came to college prewired with gentlemanliness.

To start, the media should not be utilized as any type of teaching tool for this process. Kevin Federline is not a role model. MTV should not be revered as the gentleman’s bible. And any knowledge gained from any “American Pie” movie should really be forgotten right now. Just looking at these three aforementioned cultural phenomena shows how America has come to embrace the anti-gentleman concept. To say the least, each one definitely implements a negative concept of the gentleman to the rest of the world.

The modern American ignoramus can be seen throughout society. Think about the last time you saw anything portraying a man as an overweight Neanderthal, balancing his fast food and beer bottle on his stomach, all while watching SportsCenter for hours upon end. Not hard, is it? This image is found on sitcoms and commercials, on magazines and the Internet, on billboards and in real life. Is this really how we want everyone to be seeing guys? I’m going to guess no. So, let’s bring on the backlash.

Not since the tirades of the fall of Rome has a society been so flooded with uncouth, thuggish, gawky, and animalistic hordes. Thankfully, the previous connection between affluence and savoir-faire is gone. This is the precise reason why a remedial is needed: a return to a state of individual development. It is time we realize and recognize the simple pleasure and power of knowing things. No more “dudes.” It is time for us to realize that at some point, a reasonable man must acknowledge that he should grow up and act like a gentleman.

Now I’m not asking for an overhaul of the American man. But, there are ten simple codes of conduct any guy can do to be, or appear to be, an actual, real-life gentleman. You should know what it takes, but if you don’t, just refer to a 007 movie.

As one can see, being a gentleman is not a hard task to accomplish. Obviously these ten rules are simple and basic, but they are ten rules that are constantly bent and broken in today’s society. So I challenge you to try and follow these ten rules for the next week. See if you can do it. Hopefully these will become the rules you live your life be. Then, and only then, will we be able to rid the world of all you K-Fed wannabes.