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Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
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Author | Topic: Ladies...why walk with your arms folded? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
This may sound very weird but it's a genuine question.
I've recently become intrigued by the fact that so many women walk around with their arms folded (crossed over their belly). They do this in all kinds of situations and weather - even when it's hot. It's something I must have seen all my life but never really noticed before. Now I have noticed it I see it all the time. Men may often cross their arms, but only when they are sitting or standing still. I don't think I have ever seen a man walking with his arms folded. It would be so odd I can't even picture it. I certainly could never imagine why I would want to do it myself. Is there an evolutionary or biomechanical explanation for why so many women do this?
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
Are you talking about this arm-cross? Yes. And I was slightly perturbed by the explanatory text below the picture: "Women often cross their arms in front of men they don’t like..." I suppose, deep down, I'd always suspected that was the answer. I just couldn't bring myself to accept it.
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
Maybe you should just quit staring at their boobs... That's what I mean. Their arms get in the way of a great view!
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
If you conmbine a tight arm cross with a hurried walk with head down you have a dead ringer for feeling insecure. You may well be right and it makes intuitive sense. The head down or hunched posture is a common feature I've noticed, but it's not always associated with a hurried walk. I've noticed a lot of women adopting this posture while ambling slowly around the supermarket with their husbands. It's rather sad that so many women should feel so insecure in such a bland environment. Can that really be the case?
On another side of the coin, walking quickly with a bad bra can require some support. I assume you're talking as a medical professional and not from personal experience! In either case, I'm quite sure you are right. I did wonder if it might be a posture derived from a cradling instinct. It's a posture I think I see most commonly in younger women and teenagers. From an evolutionary point of view it would seem to make sense that women should feel very much at ease in that posture. What do you think? I'm slightly worried I may be coming across as either a misogynist or pervert, or both.
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
I'm slightly worried I may be coming across as either a misogynist or pervert, or both. I see no indications of the former, but since you are obviously a male of the species, then, like the rest of us, you are, by definition, the latter. Ain't it wonderful? That's a relief, because by definition none of us can be perverts if we are all the same. But I get your point.
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
Oni: n a heart beat... and hopefully grab your penis. AZPaul3:See, Chimp? I told you we were all perverts. We can't ALL be perverts! Any heterosexual man who didn't want a woman to grab their penis would be a pervert - because there must be something very wrong with them!
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
Huntard: Unless the woman in question is exceptionally ugly, of course. Larni:Or had drill bits and knives for fingers. Now you're turning me on!
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
Yes. Definitely seems to be skinnier women. Taller too.(???)
Didn't realise you were of the female persuasion til I raised this topic. So at least I've learnt something.
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
I'm quite tall. So I get elbows in vulnerable places.
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
Literally walking around with arms crossed? I'm not sure I've ever seen that, except when it is cold outside and people are trying to preserve body heat. Strange... This might be an uniquely cultural thing that women do in the UK. Well it is always cold in the UK! Someone else previously suggested it could be a cultural thing, as British women love to walk around in cold weather wearing next to nothing. Perhaps they just get in the habit of adopting this posture even when they're not cold. But I don't think it is uniquely British. If you consider Ringo's point below, I'm sure you'll find it easier to recall having seen this before. (And it kind of re-inforces my suspicion that this could be linked to a cradling instinct.)
Ringo writes:
When I was in high school, back in the Neolithic Age, girls used to carry their books cradled in both arms like a baby and boys carried theirs in one hand at their sides like a spear. (Not my imagery. I read about it somewhere.)
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
I like having my arms free, don't care if anyone looks at my chest Good for you! And if I were a typical male I'd say: "good for the rest of us, too!" Good for the rest of us, too!
Can't say I've noticed other women doing it either round here but I am incredibly unobservant when it comes to humans I shall observe the arm-folding behaviour of the local female population when I go out later. Make sure you record some statistics. I think there's definitely a Nobel Prize in this somewhere. I'm willing to share the glory with all participants at EVC.
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
OK, I've just spent 45 minutes wandering around the busy little market town where I live, carrying out covert arm-monitoring under the guise of undertaking various chores. Good work!
I also observed one man walking with his arms folded across his chest. He was in his fifties, stockily built, dressed appropriately etc etc. Obviously an alien trying to impersonate a male of our species and making an amateur mistake!
Of the women who had both hands free (that would be about 60 women in total), one had her arms folded across her chest. Of course, I didn't mean to claim it was a high percentage of women who adopt this pose, or that they do it a high percentage of the time. From your observations so far we obviously can't conclude yet that it is a particularly female characteristic. Look forward to hearing what you observe tonight. Enjoy the movie.
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
This anthropological research malarkey is more difficult than I'd realised. I agree. Maybe we should cut our losses. I went to the supermarket last night. Out of maybe around 200 people, I saw 1 woman walking with her arms crossed (while holding a shopping basket). I also saw another of those aliens making the mistake of walking with his arms crossed while impersonating a human male. It was in the chiller section, so it seems likely that the aliens come from a warm planet. I think my original theory may be falling apart. And I can't really get excited about this new evidence of alien imposters.
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
Confirmation bias. You see, when you first noticed this, you probably thought to yourself "Hey, that's weird!". And from then on everytime you'd see a woman walking like that, it reinforced your idea that "most women walk like that" because you subconciously ignored the women that walked "normal", since you are used to seeing that everyday. I'm sure you are right. The problem is now all I can see is men walking in this manner - I just saw another one at lunchtime! The beautifully balanced view of the universe that I once held where women walked around clutching imaginary babies and men walked around clutching imaginary spears has collapsed. Chaos rules.
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