Is "respect" a relative term?

Question

What defines "Respect"? Is it societal? Cultural? Racial?

Gender-specific? What guidelines would dictate what is and what is not respectful bevahior?

Answer 1

respect is something we should all have and most don't.

Answer 2

My experience is that respect is something that starts inside a person. If one respects oneself, one tends to extend respect to others. It always makes me laugh when I see people saying, indignantly, "He/she disrespected me." Invariably this is an opportunity to start some kind of fight, which clearly doesn't involve respect in any way. If this person respected him/herself, another's actions would do little to touch that internal self-respect.

Answer 3

In general, respect is an earned admiration of a person who is living a reputable, honest, proper and inspiring life. It can be relative to the specific societal, cultural, racial or religious context in which you are giving it. Whether you respect someone or not is pretty universal, but can be further specified by the societal divisions.

For example, a respected leader in a capitalist country may earn his or her respect by guiding people to be independent, self motivated, and promoting businesses as  a way to increase the wealth of its citizens. In a communist country, a respected leader would be one who embraces the value of equalizing the nations wealth among all citizens. Both can be respected in their beliefs by their constituents.

Another example...Jesus is respected by people who believe in Christianity and even those who don't, for living a humble, model life of peace and goodwill. Find me someone who can criticize Mother Theresa of Calcutta....she is universally respected. People of all different cultures respect those who excel in sports, business, writing, science, good parents.

Respect isn't just given based on rank in life or who you are born...its earned by living an exemplary life, and being as close to the "ideal" in your specific group as possible. It takes a long time to gain respect, but it can be lost in minutes by one bad decision.

Answer 4

It is superlative, even to the person who does not give any respect and if you respect him than one day he will be force to respect you too.

Answer 5

respect is the highest most quality a person can possess if u have respect for yourself and others everything else we fall in place

Answer 6

Respect comes automatically to those who engender it.