As women go to great lengths (even a special web site) to make sure they will be uniquely dressed for the Inaugural balls, men are doing what they always do--suiting up like penguins on parade.
According to reporting by the New York Times blog, The Caucus: "Whether they buy, recycle or rent their inaugural formal wear, most men will choose a black tuxedo."
There must be something deeply psychological about one gender's need to look different and the other's to appear the same, but you don't survive to my age by publicly speculating about such loaded questions.
Instead, let me offer some advice based on years of making do with the same tuxedo: Don't waste money on alterations. Just count on suspenders and leave the waist unfastened. An expandable cummerbund is your best friend for concealing the passage of time on formal occasions.
Showing posts with label gender differences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gender differences. Show all posts
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Friday, July 11, 2008
Misreading Sexual Signals
To an observer from another era, it comes as a mild shock that young men today have troubling discerning women's erotic interest in them.
But researchers at Indiana University and Yale find women are better at interpreting facial expressions and body language, according to a study published in the journal Psychological Science, and that a substantial percentage of young men are clueless in potentially sexual situations.
Reporting on the research, CNN describes the experience of college administrator at an academic conference in conversation with an attractive woman over a glass of wine, who undid the clasp holding her hair in a bun, let it fall and flipped it side to side. A sign of interest? No, he decided. "I told myself to get real." The woman went off to her room with a puzzled expression--to shampoo her hair, no doubt.
In an era when claims of sexual harassment can follow misreading, such caution is understandable, but it may reflect a difference in communication styles between the sexes, says a "dating coach" who suggests men pay less attention to what women say than how it's said--citing such positive signs as touching on the arm, maintaining eye contact and smiling while talking.
It wasn't simple back in my day either, when we somehow managed without academic researchers or dating coaches, but then again we may have been missing out on all the nuances in the fine art of flirting.
But researchers at Indiana University and Yale find women are better at interpreting facial expressions and body language, according to a study published in the journal Psychological Science, and that a substantial percentage of young men are clueless in potentially sexual situations.
Reporting on the research, CNN describes the experience of college administrator at an academic conference in conversation with an attractive woman over a glass of wine, who undid the clasp holding her hair in a bun, let it fall and flipped it side to side. A sign of interest? No, he decided. "I told myself to get real." The woman went off to her room with a puzzled expression--to shampoo her hair, no doubt.
In an era when claims of sexual harassment can follow misreading, such caution is understandable, but it may reflect a difference in communication styles between the sexes, says a "dating coach" who suggests men pay less attention to what women say than how it's said--citing such positive signs as touching on the arm, maintaining eye contact and smiling while talking.
It wasn't simple back in my day either, when we somehow managed without academic researchers or dating coaches, but then again we may have been missing out on all the nuances in the fine art of flirting.
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