Body Language and Gender

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“True Women and Real Men: Myths of Gender” I spent the day at a local café observing men and women. I watched them closely as they came in and walked out and came to find out that many of Devor’s arguments were accurate. Just as Devor states “masculinity and femininity can be demonstrated through a wide variety of cues (533)”. We can easily differentiate males and females by the way they dress, by their behavior, body language and verbal language. Out of all these criteria I believe that body language is one of the most significant cues and it reveals tremendous information about ones gender role in the society. Devor clearly discerns the differences in body language between women and men. Body postures can clearly send a message of “subordinate status and vulnerability (532)” or “support the assumption of dominance and authority (534)”. Body language it is also referred to as a non-verbal communication. It includes facial expression, hand and arm movement, posture, position and other movements of the body, legs or feet. Most of the body gestures that men and women make are completely subconscious. Most people however are unaware of their body language signals and their impact, despite the fact that we now know that most of the messages in any face-to-face conversation are revealed through body signals. Good communication skills include verbal as well as non-verbal gestures. Body language it is also an outward reflection of a person’s emotional condition. Each gesture or movement can be a valuable key to an emotion a person may be feeling at the time. I believe that the key to reading body language is being able to understand a person’s emotional condition while listening to what they are saying and noting the circumstances under which they are saying it. What I notice again and again is that women, especially when nervous, tend to use less

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