Cassandra Tognoni | Taking chivalry back

As I happily returned to Penn last week, I was not-so-happily faced with the realization that "going out" requires a little more caution than I'm used to back in suburbia.

All of us girls returning to Penn must now remember to congregate in groups when walking home at night. Guys at Penn can now, well, keep refusing to offer girls a walk home (unless, of course, they anticipate that being their last stop).

I don't want to make a sweeping generalization of men at Penn. I know there are gentlemen out there, but the few and far between exceptions in this case seem to prove the rule.

"Anything more than four blocks from a girl I don't know really well, is a pretty big effort, so I would try to find some other way for her to get home safe," said Engineering junior Sean Engles.

"Unless she's my girlfriend, I would pay for a cab or call 898-WALK, but I don't think it is my responsibility to physically accompany her to her doorstep," said Wharton senior C.H. James.

"If a girl asks me to walk her home, I will almost always do it. . I'd rather walk 8 blocks than have my friend get raped." said Jordan Grossman, College senior.

Most guys I talked to framed their answers in a sense of duty to the specific girl, which usually wasn't much unless she was a good friend or hot.

Even such gentlemen as Grossman made the distinction that he felt his duty was not as a guy to a girl, but rather a friend to a friend.

But guys don't deserve all the blame.

"I just feel guilty asking a guy friend to walk me home," said College junior Lisa Liang. "I just feel like a little girl asking. I should be able to protect myself."

Girls are not asking, guys are not offering, and hence the girls at Penn are left to walk home alone and face the dangers of "Killadelphia."

It seems that in both men and women's eyes, chivalry is somewhat of a dead practice.

No longer are men expected to "take care" of women. Indeed, ever since the women's liberation movement propagated the credo that women can do anything and everything men can do, it is almost taboo to suggest otherwise.

Of course, as a woman embarking on a career in a couple of years, this movement has opened up opportunities for me.

Few would disagree that in the workforce women should be considered equal to men. Intellectually, women are just as capable as men (no matter what Larry Summers says).

But physically, men and women are not equal; women are the weaker sex.

Of course, put Serena Williams up against half of my guy friends, and they will go running.

But generally speaking, a random guy selected will be stronger than a random woman (and personally speaking, a high-school boy's basketball game will be more entertaining to watch than the WNBA).

But why is that so hard for women to admit? Why must we insist that we are equal to men when we are clearly not?

The concept that women may be inferior to men in any aspect is so abhorrent to women that it's become anti-feminist to suggest that men can do a better job of protecting women than women themselves can.

Chivalry has become an unfortunate victim of feminism. The result: We're left to brave the streets of West Philly by ourselves.

So what do we do?

Let's take chivalry back.

Whether we like it or not, men and women are different; there are different burdens each has to bear.

A girl feeling guilty about having a guy walk her home at night is like a husband feeling guilty that his wife has to go through the pain of childbirth.

It's just the way it is.

And so to the girls of Penn: Of course we should use any means to protect ourselves; of course we should always try to find other girls to walk with us home.

But if we find ourselves in the position where we either have to walk home, or solicit a guy friend, ask with abandon, without guilt and without feeling 'weak.'

To the guys of Penn: Consider walking a girl home your duty like it used to be.

And stop being so lazy. Sure, it may be an "effort" to walk her home, but hey, it's a lot less of an effort than childbirth.

Cassandra Tognoni is a Wharton junior from Andover, Mass. Her e-mail is tognoni@dailypennsylvanian.com. Skirting the Norm appears on Mondays.

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