The El Word

I've been thinking something over lately as I take my morning train ride to work, and to a less extent during the ride home as well. It's the idea of chivalry vs. feminism.

I get on the train early enough in the route that I have a seat on all except the rarest occasion when the train is irrationally late. There's a joke to be made here about the train always being late but seriously unless it's a half hour behind I'm just too close to the end to be on a full car.

So then it falls to me that when the train fills up at say Belmont or Logan Square that I have to decide if I'm going to stand up and offer my seat to someone.

Now I always do this in the case of an elderly or handicapped person without question. But many times I find myself sitting while a woman is forced to stand. There was a time when such an act would have me branded an uncouth ruffian and forcibly removed from the Hunting Lodge that very evening. There was also a time when people died of ptomaine poisoning and blamed it on ghosts.

I'm a staunch advocate for women's rights and gender equality. So by not giving up my seat I am treating a woman no different than I would a man. However I'm also a firm believer in just being a nice person so giving up my seat to a woman is just something polite I can do for a weary traveller on her morning commute.

Many times I'm too tired to make any rational decision or too focused on my reading to let the outside world interfere. Still I find myself more often than not just sitting and riding it out. Does that make me ungentlemanly? What's the consensus view on this?

Another quandary: does anyone else get worried that when they get off the train they spend the whole day smelling like the train?