“It’s not easy to remain ladylike when those around you are getting lazier by the minute. Many women have given up altogether. Their defection means that flashing too much flesh and sharing their bodily functions with the world had become so commonplace that exercising good manners now seems positively old-fashioned.”

–Sarah Tomczak, How To Live Like a Lady

 

When I read these words I couldn’t help but heartily agree. The world has definitely lost all sense of decorum. I’m not saying that I’m some prudish, uptight, bespectacled, schoolmarm but there is seriously something amiss with our generation’s “anything goes” attitude towards social interaction. It has become completely commonplace (worse, completely acceptable) to speak out of turn, curse out strangers, disrespect elders and generally make a loudmouth of yourself, all in the name of what I am now convinced can be referred to as the over abused concept of a “free country”. We’ve all heard these brats justify their incorrigible behaviour with a flippant, “Lay off, it’s a free country.” Yes, true though that may be, I’m sure our founding fathers didn’t quite have you and your sidewalk-spitting, sailor-cussing, gum-popping ‘tude in mind. How could we have gotten to the point where manners are old-fashioned? I suppose our society is simply above common decency and personal standards.

To give a few examples, I recently sat in class beside a girl who was apparently 80% unmannered. Not only did her hair appear to have never made contact with soap since the discovery of lye (which, by the way, IS actually a form of manners/etiquette as grooming also falls under the domain of things that could potentially be socially repugnant), she also felt the need to voice her opinion on unrelated issues for no other ostensible reason than some misguided sense of social acceptability. Do people not have any clue of how they appear to others? It appears not.

To offer further examples of the world of manners gone astray, I look no further than a co-worker of mine who didn’t believe a phrase complete without copious use of the word “fuck”. I believe it worth noting that I do not work at the docks as one might justifiably assume and that my fellow employee was not a gap-toothed deckhand. No, I work in a service occupation and my co-worker was a petite brunette girl who looked like she should be teaching kindergarten. Have you ever experienced those moments where someone makes a great first impression until they open their mouths? Such was the case with our wayward young lady. A sample of her scintillating conversational skills are as follows:

“Oh, I am so fuckin’ tired. I had to move, like, my whole fuckin’ house before work today. I can’t believe how fuckin’ long it took. My dad was just throwing my shit in the van and almost fuckin’ broke my wii. Can you fuckin’ imagine?”

No, I can’t. Almost as much as I can’t imagine that you lived in a house and not the streets of Compton. I just don’t understand why a person would feel the need to speak this way. I wonder if this girl understands the concept of an ugly personality? You may be good looking, but you open your mouth and you sound ugly. Some people may think this is a harsh criticism but I wonder why the grating harshness of the word “fuck” is never called into question? Is nothing considered inappropriate anymore? Oh wait, that’s right, there’s one thing: Manners. How enlightened.

Kate