Do I still have to open the car door if we’re just friends?

So if it’s pretty obvious that a girl and a guy are just going to be friends or “buddies” or a guy flat out gets the kiss of death from a girl, is it still necessary to open the car door for her?  Let me first define what the “kiss of death” would be for a guy or obvious tell tale signs that she’s not interested in you in any romantic type of way.  The kiss of death to a guy would be hearing any one of these lines from her, “I just want to be friends” or “You’re like a brother to me" or “I just don’t see you that way” or any other statement along those lines.  The obvious signs would be things like when she call’s you “dude” all the time in a text message or when having a one on one conversation.  When she talks to you about bodily functions that you’d only discuss with your boys.  She might prefer to hang out in large groups of friends, instead of just you or worse, points out other dude’s she thinks are hot and you don’t look like any of them, and my personal favorite, when you do get the chance to hang out with her one on one and at the end of the day, afternoon, night whatever it may be you go to give her a hug good bye and she makes sure to turn her head…not towards you but away from you as to make sure you don’t get the wrong idea and try and sneak a kiss.  The last one is especially fun when you honestly had no intention of trying to kiss her in the first place and she does that.

 Now, having said all of that let me say that I do always try and open the car door regardless. I say try because sometimes the girl will open the car door before I can get to it since my car alarm unlocks the door when I disarm the alarm. However this is a thought that has crossed my mind before.  So if we’re just buddies than why can’t I treat you like the rest of my buddies?  When I hang out with my guy friends, I don’t open the car door for them.  As a matter of fact they’d probably ask “what the fuck are you doing you weirdo.” I still do things for my friends like hold the door open when going in and out of a building, picking up the tab for a meal, or giving them a call just to shoot the shit.  Normal things friends do for each other.

So we’ve now established that we are just “friends”, so is it OK to treat her like the rest of my friends and not open the car door for her?  Look, I get it that there’s such a thing as chivalry and being a gentleman and most women would say that it’s dead. This isn’t a blog about whether chivalry is dead or not, I think there’s more to chivalry than just opening a car door for a female friend.  Yes, there are definitely douche bags out there that are just self centered assholes and if this is what women mean by chivalry is dead, I would 100% agree with them but there are plenty of good guys out there that still believe in it whether women realize it or not. So I’m curious, am I no longer considered a gentleman or a good guy if I no longer open the car door for a female if we have now established that we are just friends?  The boundaries between being a gentleman and a friend are a little hazy to me.  In any case, let me give you guys a tip, always error on the side of being a gentleman, just because your newly established friendship has no potential of going any further than that…she still might have some hot girl friends!
-Blue Collar Drifter