Scroll through the recent headlines of leading cultural press outlets, and you’ll find a slew of etiquette guides covering everything from acceptable office behaviors to long-covid decorum to how to behave at a live concert to what to do when traveling. The coverage points to a collective understanding that the ways in which we move through the world are changing.
"Do you know how to behave? Do you really?" The Cut asks in its “194 Modern Etiquette Rules for Life After Covid” guide, which was published in February 2023 and promises guidance for how to "text, tip, ghost, host, and generally exist in polite society today."
"The ways we socialize and date, commute and work are nearly unrecognizable from what they were three years ago," The Cut continues. "The old conventions are out." And while the list sparked debate for some of its suggestions, it nevertheless speaks to a shift in cultural norms.
A similar shift is underway in Japan, where smile coaches are on the rise. After social isolation and years of mask-wearing, demand for ‘smiling lessons’ is growing, the New York Times reports. “After three years of Covid-era masking, some Japanese people feel their facial expressions are a bit rusty," writes the New York Times. "Enter Keiko Kawano, smile instructor.” Her coaching sessions instruct students on how to smile with genuine feeling and warmth and strengthen their smiling muscles.
In the Netflix show “Mind Your Manners,” which premiered in November 2022, host Sara Jane Ho “offers practical manners for a new, global world,” the New York Times reports. The publication categorizes “Mind Your Manners” in the same genre as “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo” and “Queer Eye”—shows “in which charismatic life coaches act as fairy godmothers to obliging regular folks.” And while the popularity of the genre certainly isn’t new—“Queer Eye” first charmed viewers in the early aughts—the telling focus on etiquette in “Mind Your Manners” decidedly is.
As the New York Times explains, the show preaches a new kind of etiquette that is a refreshing mix of restraint and release: "Ms. Ho practiced her signature teaching style, which involves meticulous self-control, international sophistication—and occasional raunchiness."
