Men are now the milder sex, according to new research which turns assumptions about yob culture on its head.
While recent years have seen the steady rise of the beer-drinking, tough talking Ladette, men have responded by turning back to the refined dandies of the Victorian era for role models, claim the people behind one of Britain's most popular websites.
Members of the Dating section of Friends Reunited say that the more gentle and genteel a man, then the more likely he is to be lucky in love.
According to an analysis of 2000 people seeking a relationship from among the 650,000 profiles on Friends Reunited's Dating site, there are now more young men who look to the Victorian era as "the golden age of civilised behaviour" than men of retirement age.
They are following the example of trend-setters like comedian and Big Brother host Russell Brand who says he is fascinated by the Victorian era because it's proved a turn-on with girls. "The Dickensian thing is to us what the Western is to America. It defines us culturally," he told one recent interviewer.
Men over 65 are now over seven times more likely to believe that good manners are seen as patronising than those under 25, according to the Friends Reunited research.
In an intriguing survey of attitudes, men consistently demonstrated themselves to be more concerned with refinement and social graces than women.
The research revealed that:
Guys might not be being totally altruistic - after all, they have good reason to be so attentive to being on their best behaviour. Over half of women say that it's a date's manners that will always be the deciding factor on whether they see them again.
The contrast between what men and women find to be good manners is also revealing.
Women said that apart from saying please and thank you, careful personal grooming was the most important way to impress them. Yet half as many men thought it was important, putting it sixth on men's list of best manners.
An even bigger surprise is the toppling of the twin pillars of wisdom handed down from every father to every son as the secret of successful wooing: remember her birthday and buy her gifts. Less than three percent of women thought the former good manners, and a mere 0.1 percent would be impressed by the latter.
Friends Reunited's Head of Romance, Rhoda Moore, said, "The picture presented by these results is all a far cry from the image of uncouth youth that is held to be responsible for today's so-called culture of disrespect.
"In fact we've found that manners are as important to this generation as they have been to former ones. The bottom line is that around 98 percent of under-25s rate manners as important, and the figure is about the same for the over-65s."
"It seems that building good relationships is the key to promoting respect. Over half of young people say they have seen their manners improve as a result of trying to build relationships.
"We're seeing the rise of the mild-mannered man. He's not a New Man or a House Husband - he's rough and ready on the rugby pitch, but he's also a perfect gentleman too.
"The interesting thing is that those points of politeness traditionally held up as being important to women turn out to be hardly important to them at all. A fair question is: have women moved the goalposts, or just raised the bar?"
One member of Friends Reunited Dating who describes himself as "all for chivalry" is Dan Ramsden, 24, from Watford. He says, "I certainly pay more attention to manners when I meet someone new. It would be helpful if you could define how a man and woman should act on a date, like you could in the old days, it would certainly make dating easier.
Dan adds that while he has met lots of women who present themselves well, he is put off by the Ladette image. "There are some who need to work on their manners. A girl belching, just isn't appealing.
Fellow member Alan Bester, 23 from Poole, says that it is getting harder to find good manners in a prospective date. "There is no finesse as such when it comes to dating anymore, not like you see in the olden-day movies. There is no romance. A lady these days would be happy to go to the local for drinks and chips, which is not a first date."
"It's a man's responsibility to pay for the date, or at least the first if the lady in question disapproves. Men also have the responsibility to take the lead and show a prospective date how a woman deserves to be treated, like in the good old days where chivalry was next to cleanliness, and cleanliness next to godliness."
Meanwhile female members of the site were shocked to learn that men emerged as the milder sex. Hayley Kirkham, 28 from Blackpool, said, "Many women are looking for the possible father of their children, so it's a surprise to find that men appear to be better mannered.
"I agree that so-called 'Ladettes' are getting less well-mannered. Perhaps it's because they think manners are patronising or sexist."
For more information contact Carolynne Bull-Edwards or Victoria Reed on: 01883 717468 / 07932 723866 or email press@friendsreunited.co.uk
Friends Reunited Dating launched in 2003 and is the UK's 5th largest dating site.
The site has over 650,000 dating members with around 1,000 new members, aged 18 to 80, joining the service every day - real people looking for genuine relationships.
It is free to register, anonymous, confidential, and comes at a fraction of the price of most other sites.