45-year-old Nirpal Dhaliwal refuses to offer women his seat because a woman has never given up a seat for him.
He appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain and pointed out that the fares are the same for women and men.
“Firstly, if a woman is able-bodied, why should I? Guys pay for the train ticket as much as women do, they have a long day at work, they’re knackered and if she’s physically able why should I give up my seat for her?” he said.
“If she’s pregnant, she’s got a health problem or physical problem – yeah.”
The long debate came after feminist writer Caroline Rothstein said to her followers on Twitter that she refused to let a man help her with her luggage on a plane.
“Saying, “No thank you, I got it,” to the middle-aged white man on the airplane who offered—and began—to take my suitcase out of the overhead compartment for me was a quickly calculated act of resistance,” Rothstein wrote on Twitter.
Nirpal then said: “There was a Twitter storm yesterday where a woman tweeted about some guy trying to help her with her luggage, getting it out of the compartment in the plane.
“She regarded him as an oppressor. Guys are getting their head bitten off, or certainly getting an earful just for helping. That’s confusing for guys.”
He then said that a woman has never given up a seat for him, adding: “It’s a one way street though. A woman’s never given up her seat for me, that’s even when I’ve had a football injury and I’ve been limping down the carriage.
“I’ve never had a woman open a door for me, pull out a chair for me – nothing.”
Feminist Noreen Khan responded: “I would never be offended if a man was chivalrous. For example if he decides to hold the door open or says ‘would you like help with your luggage?’ I would say ‘yes please’.
“Even if I haven’t asked for it I still wouldn’t be offended. Us women, we would do the same as well for men. If he wants to hold the door open, I’ll happily hold the door open too.”
She added: “Whenever I go on a tube or train, I never expect a guy to give up a chair for me – why should he? Unless a woman’s pregnant I think or like you said with health issues, I would never expect that.
“It’s those small gestures like if you go on a date and the guy holds…” Nirpal interjected. “Why can’t we have small gestures too?”
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