After You

By Neil Cavuto

Published May 19, 2015

I have a question I'd like to ask female viewers watching right now — although I suspect, male viewers might be interested in knowing too.

Ladies, if a guy holds a door open for you, do you like it, or feel patronized by it?

The reason I ask is that I did just that for a woman, leaving a building Thursday night. She was not pleased.

"Do I look paralyzed to you?" she asked.

I was so taken aback that I didn't know what to say, or even what she was saying herself.

She went on to explain how I had just earlier stepped out of her way on the elevator to let her off.

I just assumed it was the gentlemanly thing to do. I guess I'm a bit old fashioned. But she was not and she clearly wasn't into "gentlemanly."

When I recomposed myself, I had to follow her.

"Excuse me," I asked — now feeling every bit of my offended macho Italian roots — "but exactly what bug got up your butt?"

"Treating me like I have to be coddled," she said.

"By opening a door?" I asked.

She went onto explain the door thing was part and parcel of a bigger thing: An attempt by men, she said, to make women feel like they're lesser.

It made me think and it made me worry.

So let me ask you, ladies: Do you find it offensive when some big klutz like me opens a door that I'm patronizing you, or, in the case of this young woman, "offending" you?

I'd like to know. I'll report your answers on Monday.

Watch Neil Cavuto weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on "Your World with Cavuto" and send your comments to cavuto@foxnews.com

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/story/after-you