Friday, November 22, 2019

Feminine gestures

There is a picture of a woman at a computer wearing a headset that I see when I pay our bills.  She has her head strongly tilted to the side. Just today, I purchased "Delusions of Gender" by Prof. Cordelia Fine.  I am interested in the similarities and differences between men and women today. Sure, I know that big hairy cavemen grabbed women by the hair and dragged them into their caves but in today's world, such behavior is generally frowned on. Still, women have many experiences that I don't and I suspect that I have different feelings, at least most of the time, from those of many women. 


I am the father of two girls and I am married to a woman.  I was actually borne by a woman! I have a sister but no brother.  I taught the 5th grade for 4 years and that means I trained for teaching among women, who are 89% of the American elementary teachers.  I expect that Prof. Cordelia Fine and many others want to support the notion that today's men and women are basically the same except for social expectations.  We are experiencing the emergence of women in many fields, all over the world. More and more, we are hearing that men and women are basically the same and each sex can do anything the other can do.


What they CAN do and what as young, middle-aged and elderly adults, they WANT to do may be quite different.  This whole matter of the equality of women and perhaps the interchangeability of men and women reminds me of some stories I heard from new parents 20 or 30 years ago.  Some young parents were especially interested in emphasizing that their son was not burdened by male stereotypes and sometimes went to special efforts to give their son what they perceived to be sex-free and gender-neutral toys.  Stories emerged that despite parental efforts to keep military tanks and toy guns out of the boy's toys, they found him "shooting" enemies and being brave and soldierly.


I try to stay alert to body movements and gestures that seem gender-related.  Tilting one's head to the side seems a particularly feminine movement.  


https://www.google.com/search?q=smiling+woman+with+a+head+tilt


https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Head+Tilted+to+One+Side


https://duckduckgo.com/?q=women+tilting+their+head&t=hk&iax=images&ia=images


I saw a woman professor quickly flex both knees as a gesture of emphatic feeling while speaking to a group but I have never seen a man do that.

Popular Posts

Follow @olderkirby