Chivalry: Dead

I sure hope not. But I'm not holding my breath.

Our high school biology teacher is a petite woman, shorter than me even in her signature kitten heel slipers. She easily brings out the huge insectarium boxes out of the cabinet one by one until she finds the one she's looking for, ours; which she also heaves, with a bit more effort, out of the cabinet and leans it against a table. We all talk and catch up for awhile. She asks Gina and me how we're going to get it home and then decided that one of the guys should carry it to the car for us. It didn't happen.
Camera guy was leaning against the same table as the box was. So when she asked who was going to carry the box first, Singapore guy (another ex-classmate now studying in Singapore) quickly says to Camera guy, "You're nearer to it." I'll admit the box is freaking heavy. Everyone else's was made of plywood and cardboard or something, ours was custom made, out of metal. Gina had had it made and none of us had paid her anything for it, but it was definitely expensive. Anyways, all the way down the stairs, Camera guy bangs it against the stairs and I couldn't decide which was more worrying: him chipping the stairs or scratching the box. I just couldn't stand it and he took that as his excuse to essentially say "There you girls carry it yourselves." I'll admit it was a lot of effort and heavy but that's where I would've expected Singapore guy to volunteer to help.
Gina and I ended up taking turns carrying it on the long walk back to the car while carrying our own umbrellas because it was raining crazy heavily. The whole time neither of them made any attempt to take over carrying the thing, or even help us open the car door or get it into the car.
Sure, Gina and I managed it. But it makes me wonder...they couldn't have given up or avoided the task any faster. What ever happened to chivalry? Heck, what ever happened to just being plain courteous or helpful?
Make no mistake; I'm not one of those who are a disgrace to feminism and all that. I'm all for equality and equal rights and all. Truth is, if you look at it in another perspective, people who think women who expect men to carry heavier loads aren't getting with the whole feminism programme are probably either stuck in the dark ages themselves (come on, you really think how heavey a load you can carry, how far you can throw something, or just plain how strong you are determines how much rights you get? Really?!?!) or are men like my buddies Singapore guy and Camera guy who will find any lame excuse to tell girls "You go ahead and carry all that while we stand by and watch."
While I get it that being treated nicely isn't something to be expected but is more of a luxury to be pleasantly surprised by, I think all of us girls could do with being pleasantly surprised a bit more often.