Old-fashioned romance

You know, like chivalry and stuff.  Like when you buy her a kebab before you go back to hers for a one-night stand.  Like the 6 hours of Pride and Prejudice you have to watch to see ONE KISS!  And like Sir Walter Raleigh laying his coat over a puddle to keep Queen Elizabeth I's shoes clean:

Romance of the 21st century is beginning to look a little like human behaviour has done a full circle back to prehistoric days, when cavemen dragged their women around by the hair.  With the normalisation of hard-core pornography, a lowered expectation of self morality and a binge-drinking culture, chivalry doesn't stand a chance.  Of course, I realise that this is an enormous generalisation, and that many relationships are still very dignified and well-meaning (I would like to think my own included).  I would also dare to suggest that the more modern times are far less repressed, particularly with regard to women's rights.  Feel free to disagree with this.

Living in Australia has given me great insight to the absence of class and true romance.  While courtship in 1912 may have taken months of planning, supervised interaction and a marriage before spending any time to get to know each other physically, courtship in Melbourne a hundred years later consists of plying the targeted significant other with beer, before approaching with the incredibly creative line: "how bout it, luv?".  If successful, this may result in the immediate and clumsy consummation in the back of a 1997 Holden Commodore.  Of course, there is every chance the girl may have more self-respect.  This requires MORE BEER (the final result is likely to be identical).

My boyfriend is currently (and has been for some time) working in areas of high concentrations of TRUE AUSSIE BLOKES, otherwise known as the mines in rural Western Australia.  While living with me in Melbourne, he is a collared shirt-wearing, tasteful music-loving, very metrosexual guy who will say the words "I love you" over the phone on a busy tram.  This is a hard persona to keep while surrounded with potty-mouthed alcoholics who spend their weekends smoking crack and shouting abuse at their girlfriends.  Any deviation from the stereotypically patriotic Australian with a V8 and a widescreen to watch the footy, the offender is immediately thought to be gay and therefore in need of a punch in the face.  Not a lot of room for old-fashioned romance when you live with 3,000 homophobic and well-built tradesmen!

But in amongst the doom and gloom of new-age promiscuity, I feel like there is still a ray of hope.  I'm inclined to thing that in moving with the times, chivalry now has a new manifestation.  For example, I now wear shoes that can cope well with stepping in puddles, and nothing makes me happier than coming home to the smell of dinner being served.  It has become widely accepted in many circles that marriage is no longer a prerequisite for bedding your fair maiden (it is my own opinion that this is a good thing, allowing couples to get to know each other in the mental, emotional and physical sense before making lifelong commitments). 

The vast majority of men and women treat each other well, and small acts of kindness are noticed more in an age where they are not necessarily expected (I recall after a long day of work last year my boyfriend presented me with the gift of a pineapple - my favourite food - which had more meaning to me than a bouquet of roses or walking on the outside of the pavement) .  Relationships are far more equal, and conversations are far less restricted without the pressure of class distinction or fear of ostracism.  In saying that, I feel that old-fashioned romance certainly had it's place, and I'm not sure the cinematic experience would have been the same had Mr. Darcy asked Miss Bennett for a quick hand-job behind the drawing-room door...

On that note, I'll end before I have to try and swallow the other foot as Jane Austin turns in her grave (please note also that I am an enormous fan of her work!).  I'd like to think that in this busy day and age, human beings can allocate a small amount of time to contributing to the good in this world and show each other some kindness.  This is new-fashioned romance, the way it should be.

Blue skies,

-Ez