Im not sure about the guy who goes out of his way to open the car door thing ...my mom married a guy like that and he turned out to be a freak ...it was just a cover ..a mask for others to see. Since then and with all the womens lib stuff ...I don't really see the car door thing as healthy?
I have to agree with you here. I see it both ways.
I've never expected a man to hold the car door open for me. Why? Because I can do it myself. It has nothing to do with feminism, but I was raised not to expect someone to do for me what I can do for myself. When women drive alone, with children or with other women who opens the car door? The woman opens the door for herself, so why is that somehow different because a man is in the car?
I also don't think that opening the car door is a realistic expectation to place on men. Seems a bit self-centered to me.
Everyday is not the same. Some days the man might be tired from working, in a legitimate hurry or reasonably distracted. He shouldn't be expected to run around opening the car door for a woman who can do that very small thing for herself.
In the Bible days, how many men ran around opening the car door for their ladies? None and for obvious reasons.
A man might start off opening the car door for the woman, but that rarely lasts in my observation because it simply isn't feasible. I live in the south, and in my observation of couples who have been together for a long time, I rarely see men opening the car door for women. If I see this, it's usually a sign of a new couple, and the man is trying to impress the woman initially.