‘Just Good Manners' Review: Mind Your Mores
In the James Cameron film 'Titanic' there's a brief scene in which a young girl gets poked in the back so that she'll sit up straight, like a lady. Viewers are given to understand that they're seeing how etiquette crushes the spirit, the way a corset crushes the ribs.
We are a long way from 1997, when the movie came out (let alone from 1912, when the ship sailed and sank), and the likelihood today of any young person getting lessons in deportment has dwindled. Slouching is in, formality is out, and the sight of more than two forks on the table is enough to make a dinner guest break out in hives.
Yet people persist in wanting to know and understand the correct forms, even if their details seem antiquated or obsolete. Who, amid widespread cultural flux, can advise them?
Emily Post became the American maven of manners in 1922, advocating gentility and founding a dynasty that is still consulted by the socially anxious to this day. Judith Martin became a hit as Miss Manners in the newspaper column she launched in 1978. In the U.K., Debrett's has long advised Britons on such matters.
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