“Don’t take no for an answer,” his mother had no doubt told him, teaching her son the proper manners of a polite host. “Don’t take no for an answer,” his father had told him, teaching his boy how to succeed in business, in politics, in any profession. “Don’t take no for an answer,” his frat brothers had told him, teaching him to trust his own judgment of what a girl wants, despite what she may say. So now here he is, trying to do all at once, just like he’s been told all his life, by everyone. Chivalry can be just another form of hostility. Chivalry can be the weapon itself.
