Luckily, it was E.R.'s legacy that lasted? Really?! A woman as respectable and dignified as Emily Post deserves better than that. For crying out loud, if more women today behaved as stoically, dignified, reserved and well behaved as Emily Post, I believe that America would be a much better place to live , not too mention substantially less crude. Instead we have Madonna, Spears, & "girls gone wild", and the young girls that emulate this poor behavior. What a shame.

Agreed. I had to read that line again because it didn't sit right with me.

More of us woman (and gentlemen) should strive to live refined lives. At least this world would be more pleasant.

THANK YOU! I knew something was bothering me about the review, especially the last line, but I couldn't pinpoint it. You put my thoughts into words here.

Whenever I see ads for the "girls gone wild" crud, I often wonder if those young women are proud of themselves or if they ever wonder how their mother or grandmother would feel if they say them acting that way. It's one thing to shame themselves, but it's something else altogether to bring shame to their elderly relatives. Of course, these types of women are the worst example of what feminism brought us. Some of us still want to be treated like women, but also want men to realize that we are capable of doing for ourselves if we choose or if we need to. I never thought "equality" meant that we now have a right to exploit ourselves.

Women have become their own worst enemies. We can draw together in times of crisis, but spend the rest of our time making things harder on each other. Shapiro, in her diatribe against Emily Post fails to realize that it was/is the "feminine arts" that make the world a more pleasant place to live. Some women choose that as their life and some don't. Just like some males choose to be men and some remain children their entire life.

Umm, don't you mean that more people - men and women - ought to strive to be more dignified and civilized?

Because the only other way to read that is as a post advocating that women shut up, get back in the house, birth a few babies and keep the living room clean while they're at it.

I agree with the basic premise that people (not just women - people) have gotten out of control in terms of a loss of manners and a modern reign of selfishness...

...but to say that it's women who are the problem, and imply that they are the only problem? Come on. Other than my grandmother (maybe) I don't know many women who would want to live in Emily Post's world. We had the feminist revolution for a reason - life as a woman before 1960 kind of stunk if you had any ambitions beyond marriage and babies.

It is possible to have happy, independent, equal women in society without advocating that we turn back the clock. All it takes is manners, on the part of everyone.