Please list some defining characteristics of a true-blue gentleman. Now he doesn't have to be a 16th century count or anything as dramatic as that. I simply want to know what qualities you would expect to see in a modern-day gentleman.

Ladies (and flies ) the floor is all yours...

See my Profile.

A question of my own: If a guy is gay, does that automatically exclude them from being called a gentleman? I know gentleman is referred to as a type of behaviour, but wouldn't a gentleman have to be some sort of a catch (from a gal's perspective). You're asking about characteristics of gentlemen, not gentlemenly behavious, so I just want to make sure.

^I'm referring to gentlemanly behavior. For example, opening doors for ladies, helping them put their coats on, etc. to me reflects gentlemanly behavior. Also, a man who is forthright, decent, and honest can be a gentleman if he also cares to say, always extend to pay for dinner, always offer to pick her up in his car, give her flowers unexpectedly, and has proper manners and good etiquette overall. Those are some examples.

A man who doesn't have to touch a lady to love her.

Well it depends what you define by gentleman. Lets go through the 007 Stereotypes.

Connery - A true man. A *******, got his women, use them and lose them. Cold blooded killer, did anything to get the job done. Tough and macho. A sauve gentleman nonetheless.

Moore - Finese and style. Much more the ladies man. Suave, charming etc. Slept with the girl but gave credit to her feelings, just a tiny bit. Still macho.

Brosnan - A wuss but definitely a modern day gentleman. Gives women credit and shows emotion. Much more than any other Bond. Still sauve but in a more emotional way. Charming etc.

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Basic characteristic of a gentleman is that he is charming and sophisticated as well has a way with women. Sweep them off their feet and the like. Of course, only good looking men can be defined as gentleman. That is the stereotype.

Originally posted by Madhanee:
I think Jinnah personifies what is gentlemanly qualities. He liked his scotch rare, smoked, and wore hand tailored Seville Row double-breasted suites. What a guy. You gotta love him. Not to mention that he got us a place to call home.

You are right Jinnah was a gentleman in all respects.

In modern days, Prince Kareem Agha Khan, Nawaab Mansoor Ali khan Pataudi and Sahibzada Yaqub khan (Ex Foreign Minister of pakistan), are in my list of Gentlemen from Southeast Asia.

Also talking about Gentlemen, you need have Ladies with fine manners, elegant style of dressing and good taste of men

Originally posted by sweetpie:
^I'm referring to gentlemanly behavior. For example, opening doors for ladies, helping them put their coats on, etc. to me reflects gentlemanly behavior.

seems a little outdated definition because of the whole impact of feminazis on this culture, some women may consider ppl opening doors, offering to help them with carrying stuff etc as utterly chauvanistic.

heck its hard to do teh right thing these days or know what is considered right..

Also, a man who is forthright, decent, and honest can be a gentleman if he also cares to say, always extend to pay for dinner, always offer to pick her up in his car, give her flowers unexpectedly, and has proper manners and good etiquette overall.

I agree with the parts of your sentence in italics. Him offering to pay for dinner or offering to pick up in his car or bringing flowers unexpectedly may be some romantic standards set in mills and boons, but have nothing to do with a person being a gentleman in reality.

Mr. Darcy :love:

Originally posted by Femme Fatale:
Mr. Darcy :love:

pride and prejudice?
i totally agree!

Originally posted by Femme Fatale:
Mr. Darcy :love:

oooooooooooooooooooh

that really is perfect.

he is a gentleman. especially in the second half.

:love:

Jinnah sure was one hell of a gentleman. Too bad he had to spend most of his life without an intimate partner.
in modern times i think King Hussein(late) of Jordan had that charisma of a real gentleman.
speaking of us ordinary men, i guess you girls could find one anywhere anytime, there's shortage but we're outhere.

Originally posted by sweetpie:
^ good etiquette overall.

unfortunately alot of 'men' dont even know what etiquette means
a real gentleman knows how to behave towards every one.
not just the ladies

Madame X, I agree (especially if the couple isn't engaged or married) and the touching is ahem...extreme


Fraudz: "Him offering to pay for dinner or offering to pick up in his car or bringing flowers unexpectedly may be some romantic standards set in mills and boons, but have nothing to do with a person being a gentleman in reality." True, a person's character is the real yardstick to judge his character by but still...us girls do have our standards.

FF, Mr. Darcy

Prae, you're quite right.

Muhammad Asad, the author of 'The Road to Mecca'.

Anyone who hasnt read that book should read it....

Here's a short biography taken from

http://www.sufism.org/books/asad.html


About Muhammad Asad

"Buried in the small Muslim cemetery in Grenada in Spain is one Muhammad Asad, one of the most prominent Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century.... He was born Leopold Weiss in Lwow, Galicia now in Poland the son of a Jewish barrister and grandson of an orthodox rabbi. He studied history of art and philosophy at Vienna University then went to Prague and later Berlin. Invited to Jerusalem by his uncle, Dorian Weiss, a prominent psychiatrist and early pupil of Freud,... he encountered the Zionist Committee of Action but from the outset conceived a strong objection to Zionism an objection which he personally conveyed to Dr Chaim Weizman, the leader of the Zionist movement.... He became a correspondent for Die Frankfurter Zeitung, making a name for himself with dispatches from Palestine.

"He traveled extensively in the Mashreq and Maghreb... The turning point came in 1926 when he converted to Islam.... Asad enjoyed a close friendship with King Ibn Saud. His love affair with Arabia was more intense than those of his European predecessors.... After more travelling, Asad went to British India and befriended Muhammad Iqbal, the spiritual father of the idea of a separate Pakistan, whom he admired greatly. Iqbal persuaded Asad to abandon plans to travel to eastern Turkestan, China and Indonesia and to help elucidate the intellectual premises of the future Islamic state....

"After an absence of 25 years from the West, Asad came to Paris and then to New York in early 1952, serving as Pakistan's Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations. His spiritual autobiography, The Road to Mecca (1954), which the Times Literary Supplement called "a narrative of great power and beauty," covered the first half of his life, including a journey in the summer of 1932 into the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Desert, which confirmed his conversion to his new belief, and a conscious, wholehearted allegiance from one cultural environment to another....

"However, Asad's chief ambition was to translate the Koran into English. First Switzerland and then Morocco provided the setting for the preparation of his magnum opus, The Message of the Qu'ran (1980), dedicated to "people who think." In its intellectual engagement with the text and in the subtle and profound understanding of the pure classical Arabic of the Koran, Asad's interpretation is of a power and intelligence without rival in English.

"Asad was saddened by the intellectual insularity of the Muslim world, the intolerance of the extremists, and was a powerful advocate of the rights of Muslim women. It was Asad's insistence that the constitution of Pakistan allow for the election of a woman leader that opened the way for Benazir Bhutto. "The great mistake (of the fundamentalists)," he once explained, "is that most of these leaders start with the hudud, criminal punishment. This is the end result of the sharia (Islamic Law), not the beginning. The beginning is the rights of the people. There is no punishment in Islam which has no corresponding right."

-- Excerpted from The Guardian

Originally posted by Femme Fatale:
Mr. Darcy :love:

Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, I loved his character.

i define a gentleman by his character, morals ethics its part of everything they do, not just the way they behave to a woman but the way they handle everything that comes in their way

take for eg a situaition where they have a car accident (godforbid )

man 1: (lets not call them gentle just yet)
Jumps out, starts swearing at the other person, threatens them, probably tries to dislocate their arm etcetc

man2:
what he SHOULD have done was calmly got out exchanged addreses numbers no plates etc

anyone can hold a door open for u or help u into a jacket - thats a little old fashioned but still nice - but imagine having a car accident with them

ok girls, i do agree that Mr Darcy from Pride and prejudice was very impressive, and infact one of the greatest characters ever portrayed in literature or cinema, BUT, if you like Mr Darcy, does that mean you women basically like and call a gentleman only man who is just Rich, Famous, Handsome, Young, Arrogant and takes everyone, even women he's supposed to be courting for Granted...?