The demands on a real gentleman change over time – and so what, according to a survey, is an absolute no-go for the modern gentleman, was not on the radar 50 years ago.
Opening the door, paying for food, always walking behind the lady when going up the stairs and in front of her when going down – a man in the 50s had to follow such etiquette rules to pass as a true gentleman. And today? Does it look a little different. In times of ghosting, benching and the like, we tend to find it gentleman-like when a guy lets us know half an hour before the date that he is late. If he then holds a door open for us, we are probably almost suspicious of the shock.
Survey: what makes the modern gentleman?
In a small survey of around 200 men and women, the bag supplier Maxwell Scott obtained a picture of what distinguishes the modern gentleman from today's perspective. First of all, what is least surprising: for 80 percent of those surveyed, a man must have impeccable manners to earn the honorary title of gentleman. As I said: inform in good time about delays and stuff like that …
74 percent of the survey participants said they knew someone they would describe as a gentleman. Since the sample consisted of 40 percent men and 60 percent women, a good half of these 74 percent will probably have thought of themselves.
No gos for a gentleman
The survey of all gentleman wannabes provided concrete rules of conduct with regard to no-gos, i.e. things that a gentleman should absolutely not do: look at the mobile phone while they are on a date or even use it and be logged into a dating app. The former disqualifies gentleman candidates in the opinion of 59 percent of the participants, 50 percent rated the dating app as a no go – according to them, we don't even have to start looking at Tinder if we want to date a gentleman.
The only question that remains is whether we really want to have a gentleman by our side, after all, we would ideally have to behave like a lady ourselves in order to match really well. But for the right person it might be possible for once …
You can find more information from the survey on the Maxwell Scott website.