Please send your questions for publication to prudence@slate.com.

Dear Prudence,

I am a bit confused by your answer to "Anon,"who was seeking advice about a gentleman preceding a lady into a public place. When exiting a building it is very easy for a gent to both precede the lady and hold the door for her because outside doors swing out. However, when entering a building, the outward swinging door makes both holding and preceding an awkward maneuver--at least in my experience. Is there a technique to gracefully precede a lady and hold the door for her that I am unaware of? Thanks.

--Awkward in St. Paul, Minn.

Dear Awk,

Prudie is having trouble following the movement of all these doors. Prudie is not even sure there is a universal protocol for the way doors swing. To be perfectly candid, Prudie does not really care, finding this bit of politesse rather inconsequential. Just do what feels comfortable.

--Prudie, permissively

Dear Prudence,

As a counselor, I take issue with your response to "Confused in the Big City."I find your evaluation that she is wonderfully clear-eyed about her situation way off base. While shifting to a position of no sex may well be a good starting point and help restore some needed self-esteem, if she continues to think that the problem is with the men she is attracted to then she will never get to the root of things.

Sooner or later she's going to have to investigate the "whys" within herself for her attraction to them. What will eventually arise is a confrontation of her own availability for intimacy, which she never has to examine as long as these men are "unavailable." They are not the problem, just symptoms.