by Und3dkill@ July 22, 2014
Get the Chivalry mug.Etiquette of how knight should behave. It doesn't really have much in common with being nice to women, rather it dictates what rules there are at fight, etc., etc. If a woman (especially feminist) tells you chivalry is dead, throw your gloves on the ground in front of her and challenge her to duel to death with longswords and shields to show her what this word really means.
Lately, a woman walked to me and told me "chivalry is dead", so I challenged her to a sword duel. It seems chivalry is well enough, the woman's dead, though...
by Tomsow(12) January 9, 2020
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From the old French word for knighthood, "chevalerie", the art of being a chevalier (a knight or horseman).
This was originally a system by which mounted warriors were to act, but while service to their people is touched upon the general goal of medieval knights was not saving many a damsel in distress, devotion to God, or enforcing justice; most knights defined chivalry as warfare and obtaining fame and fortune in the name of their king(s) and without any display of cowardice in battle. In a sense, it's hardly different from joining the military for the benefits that it offers, including the money that pours in from the business of war. Chivalry was basically a boy's culture: fighting other men, riding horses, power and profit and the ability to exploit that power.
The modern notion of chivalry as courtesy to women has tenuous links to chivalry as it was originally conceived. Perhaps courtly love (coined in 1883 to describe the worship of a married noblewoman by a lowly troubadour or knight and his vow to do great deeds in her honor) influenced this notion, but courtly love is, for all intents and purposes, adultery (very dangerous to both participants) and to what extent that courtly love was ever practiced remains unknown.
This was originally a system by which mounted warriors were to act, but while service to their people is touched upon the general goal of medieval knights was not saving many a damsel in distress, devotion to God, or enforcing justice; most knights defined chivalry as warfare and obtaining fame and fortune in the name of their king(s) and without any display of cowardice in battle. In a sense, it's hardly different from joining the military for the benefits that it offers, including the money that pours in from the business of war. Chivalry was basically a boy's culture: fighting other men, riding horses, power and profit and the ability to exploit that power.
The modern notion of chivalry as courtesy to women has tenuous links to chivalry as it was originally conceived. Perhaps courtly love (coined in 1883 to describe the worship of a married noblewoman by a lowly troubadour or knight and his vow to do great deeds in her honor) influenced this notion, but courtly love is, for all intents and purposes, adultery (very dangerous to both participants) and to what extent that courtly love was ever practiced remains unknown.
Chivalry, for the most part, was the opposite of the Geneva Convention; it was all about making a profit on war. The image of an honorable knight saving a fair maiden from a dragon is not much more than sheer fantasy, and most of it seems to stem from the Victorian era; the Victorians, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, looked at the Middle Ages through rose colored glasses as an idyllic place of pre-industrial innocence, projecting their own ideals of men and women onto the knight and the damsel in distress. A real knight in shining armor was actually more like a trained assassin and the local rapist rolled into one and the damsel in distress, a helpless shrinking violet, never really existed.
by Lorelili October 9, 2011
Get the chivalry mug.Something women complain is dead even though it cannot logically exist in an equal society, which is something women wanted. It's one or the other.
Jesse lamented about the death of chivalry while she lambasted the days when men oppressed women which was a time when chivalry was common. Makes perfect sense.
by Amfortas March 28, 2011
Get the Chivalry mug.Chivalry is when a guy does something nice for a woman that is not usually expected in modern times. The consists of a guy just doing the gentlemanly thing.
John opened the car door for Kayla; chivalry is always done by John.
When John offered to hang her coat, Kayla took off her jacket and handed it to him.
When John offered to hang her coat, Kayla took off her jacket and handed it to him.
by ambergurswag September 13, 2013
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