For the longest time in human history, certain things have had a certain way about them. For instance, the white wedding dress is supposed to only be worn by a virgin woman. However, these days, few women who wear one actually are virgins. Why would they wear them, then? Because somewhere along the line we forgot that that's the way it's supposed to be. Then, when we learn about things like that, we don't really care and just do what we want anyway. She's not a virgin, she knows about the convention, but she's wearing the white wedding dress anyway, because that's what she wants to do. I say things are better this way.

I think the only reason these conventions were put into place is because the people of olden times didn't have anything better to do than come up with and follow strange conventions. For instance, when a woman stands up to leave a table, it's considered polite for all the men to stand up at the table until she walks away, at which point they can all sit back down. Few people know of this, and even fewer practice it. I think in these modern times, if a girl got up to go to the bathroom and all the men stood up with her, she might get a little freaked out, especially if she doesn't know about the convention. She might even feel bad for having gotten up to go to the bathroom, and next time she'll just hold it instead of subject herself to the grand announcement that she's going to the bathroom. Can you imagine seeing this in common practice in restaurants? That would be so surreal. Every minute or two, all the guys at some random table just stand up for a bit. It actually creates a rather amusing image, like something out of a Terry Gilliam film.

Many conventions people just accept because they're raised with them would actually appear very strange to someone who wasn't raised with them and may not be aware of them. I won't get into the subject of religion here, but if you travel to foreign countries where they don't speak a Latin-based language, you may observe many strange customs that are unquestionably normal to the people practicing them. However, even in countries that are still living like they would've 200 years ago, conventions are being lost due to outside influence.

Honestly, I think these impractical conventions (I say this not to criticize conventions, but rather to limit my statement to just the impractical ones) are better off lost. Unless they're fun, of course, because fun is something we should have more of. Standing up at the table when a girl needs to pee isn't fun. However, when these things are seen to outsiders as strange and possibly scary, it certainly doesn't help to quell the xenophobia that exists even today. I think xenophobia is on the out, and has been for a while, although not nearly as much prior to the Internet boom. In spite of all the hate, drama, and anonynimity that's prevelant on the Internet, I think it's bringing us closer together as a world. I think it's also partly responsible for the loss of many conventions, as we all now have better ways to keep ourselves occupied than learning if the color of our clothes means anything about our sexuality.