Body language: Are our gestures driven by our sex?

Body language: Are our gestures gendered?

MF editorial team

13 May 2014

updated the 7 October 2015 à 00:00

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In the street: Crossing your arms
While men only cross their arms when face-to-face with another, many teenagers and women do it even when walking in public spaces. This signal of self-protection, a sort of symbolic “barrier” against extraneous thoughts, may be indicative of a domestic disturbance, often linked to a lack of self-confidence or self-esteem, states psychologist Joseph Messinger*.

*Author of “La grammaire des gestes” (The grammar of gestures) (J'ai Lu).
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Seduction: The art of twirling our locks
While the man tends to flex his muscles and pull in his stomach, the woman tends to multiply the “sexy gestures”, including the habit of playing with her hair for two to six seconds, observe psychologists Barbara and Allan Pease*. In tossing back or running a hand through her hair, she exposes her neck. This “capillary display” would have, according to psychologists, the same effect as when one exposes their underarms, that is, allowing pheromones to spread...

* Read: "The sign language of love," First
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In the office: the art of smiling… or not!
When at work, a psychological study has shown that women who desire to manage, or are expressing a desire to manage a team, were statistically less likely to smile than men faced with the same test – a role play, where all participants acted as the director and employees. According to neurobiologist Sébastien Bohler*, this expresses a rejection of the cliché about women being eternally accommodating.

*Author of "Quand vos gestes parlent pour vous’ (When your actions speak for you) (Dunod).
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Dialogue: The art of touch
More receptive than men to tactile sensations, women are more inclined to automatically self-examination of reflexes, like running a hand slowly down the thigh, neck or throat. Or, as a subconscious mental representation of sex, slowly caressing a cylindrical object, such as the stem of a glass, cigarette, or an earring. Or their handbag, often seen as an extension of themselves.

Some reflexes and attitudes are universal, while others seem more gendered. We present an analysis of some typically feminine gestures.

We all know that our non-verbal language speaks for us. This language is sometimes universal, for example in terms of the face, which can express six basic emotions – joy, disgust, anger, sadness, fear, and surprise, says psychologist David Cohen, author of “Comment décoder les gestes de vos interlocuteurs – et être conscient des vôtres!” (How to decode actions of others – and be aware of your own!)(Leducs ed). And sometimes, it is more coded, depending on our culture, language…or gender. For example, men making the first move? Yes, that is a cliché demolished by the analysis of many studies on how men and women flirt. In fact, women are the ones who take the initiative by using no less than 52 different non-verbal behaviours of seductive glances, prolonged gazes, pouts… Decoding four subliminal messages.

Isabelle Soing

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Body language: Are our gestures gendered?

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