I define modern chivalry as a male disposition of profound respect toward women, which is most importantly and courageously expressed in refusing to make inappropriate sexual advances and defending women from other men who do not abide by that code of respect. It is a disposition that transcends the sexual nature of human males, particularly young men, which rarely orients itself in a respectful manner toward the opposite sex. Chivalry, then, does what it can to replace the aggressive sexuality of young men with a profound and healthy respect for women not because they are weak or helpless, but because they are the object of men's most emotionally and physically dangerous desires.
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Chivalry should also be embraced by feminism. It tries to harness men's energy and direct it away from the disrespectful misogyny of womanizing and instead toward countering that predisposition. Yes, it does not treat women as equals; it treats them as better than equals, as people who deserve more respect than the hypersexualized male is ready to show. But, in a case of runaway ideology, modern feminism has spurned chivalry as quaint, paternalistic and misogynistic.
Rather than embracing the mutual respect of chivalry, modern feminism has moved toward an ideology of sexual liberation that is particularly popular among younger Americans. It is an ideology and an identity that eschews modesty and restraint in favor of the false liberty of sexual license, in which an idealistic view of sex, devoid of emotion and consequences, creeps into the psyche. Modern feminism therefore not only pushes away chivalry, but undercuts its very foundations.