I have to agree with most of the comments here, that common courtesy - another rather archane sounding term - is socially desirable. But I was thinking about my reaction when, for example, a man does not open a door for me. It's more conspicuous if he does not than if another woman does not. I find myself feeling slightly resentful and start questioning his character. Is that fair? Why don't I have similar feelings towards an inconsiderate woman, for it is fundamentally consideration shown by one individual towards another that is at the crux of such actions. I would feel rather uncomfortable, however, if a man stood at a dinner table heralding my arrival. The utility of that is, to me, questionable. I think there are things that have been done pastly that don't serve a purpose but only go to make distinctions between the genders, and are rightfully redundant now. It is indeed a short step from such things to being regarded as being enfeebled en masse, as women. I always hold a door open, regardless of the sex of whoever is coming or going. It's simply polite, and I would expect the same from someone else. I nearly went off on a tangent there.
But don't you, being the man that you are, find the term 'manhood training' distasteful. I find that condescending. You hear far too many women boasting about how their men have been 'trained'. I find the term vaguely emasculating.
I don't see it distasteful, no. Maybe more of a remnant of old times where gentlemen go hunt foxes and women wait on the porch wearing wide hats and behaving ladylike. I think those terms take away a certain amount of freedom by stipulating clearly defined roles. Where men are manly and women ladylike and courteous. Where real men don't ballet and real ladies don't let anybody see them sweat. On the other hand, don't we all have an idea of what a real man should be? Don't we or wouldn't we teach those ideas to our own boys? Generational nuances may change, but isn't the idea of what a man should be basically the same as in the turn of the century and across borders? So, no, I think MANHOOD TRAINING is alright in terms of teaching a boy what a man should be, it just happens to be different for some. For some it would be Bat man, while for others it would be Hugh Grant. )
Benedict Arnold 