Saturday, March 10, 2012

Etiquette


In class we learned about gender nonverbal communication and the topic that interested me was kinesics which is facial and body movements. The typical kinesics behavior in women is to smile and use their facial and body gestures that are seen to others as gentle and approachable. The typical kinesics behavior in a man is to use their facial and body gestures more aggressively to others; like getting up in their faces and invading others personal spaces. Also, how a person sits and how their posture is like is considered body movement and how men and women are seen and approached.

Between the lecture, the teacher wanted us to do what I call an etiquette test. The teacher told us how to sit straight, to bend down, and to sit on the floor. I noticed that our teacher had told us to do all those things just as a lady would do them.  That means that all the guys had to do this as well. Since I had taken Charm class when I was in 9th grade I knew all of the proper etiquette response that the teacher had instructed us to do so I mostly watched how everyone else, especially the guys, did their responses. I could not prevent myself from laughing when one of the guy’s was in pain from sitting straight while keeping his knees together and his feet crossed. It was nice to see the guys doing what most women have to do when it comes to posture and body gestures.

I found this video on youtube called Young Ladies Etiquette Classes; this is an advertisement that shows the teachings and the positive outlooks on how etiquette classes have impacted on young ladies. If you want to see the video just click on the link that is provided at the bottom or you can copy and paste it. This video shows how the young ladies learn proper etiquette so that they can become well behaved and mature ladies who people will come to respect. The ladies taking these etiquette classes are using them to learn how to be polite and respectful whereas I had to learn proper etiquette because I was told that it is what ladies have to do.  


Wood, J.T. (2011). Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture. Boston: Wadsworth.

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