Reply
Sun 9 Dec, 2007 09:59 am
Now that we have a woman presidential candidate, a strange custom has become more evident, especially on television during campaign events.
Why do men, when meeting another man, shake hands, while when meeting a woman, they kiss the woman?
Kissing women colleagues instead of shaking hands is uncommon in the business world. Why?
Does kissing women project a paternalistic attitude, as if the women are children---or sex objects? I could not find any photos of Hillary Clinton being kissed by a man other than her husband, Bill. Is it because she understands that colleague greeting kisses lowers her status among male competitors and the viewing voters?
Why are women greeted differently than men in the political world?
Puzzled BBB
{shrug} Maybe they're just friends.
I had heard that the men shaking (right) hands with each other goes back to very old times and was a demonstration that neither had a dagger in his hand.
Interesting, BBB.
Off the top of my head, I think that formal greeting actions have become a mishmash of several histio-cultural regimens, codified. For many centuries it was common for men of equal status to kiss, on the lips, when meeting -- often called the "kiss of peace". (Less formally or between those of unequal status the curtsy and the bow sufficed.) I'm not sure when that stopped, but probably around the Industrial Revolution. For many European & Mediterranean cultures, the air kiss (lightly touching cheek to cheek and making kissing motion) on one side or both, remains very common. But for those of Northern European extraction, the handshake is de rigueur.
In my business dealings, the handshake is the most common method -- on greeting and on conclusion of a meeting. I find that as a woman, I often have to initiate it -- so there remains some social ambiguity. Among my southern European- or Mediterranean-extract (male or female) clients of long standing, the air kiss is very common, almost always of their initiation (because of my native northern reserve). With any Muslim or Oriental business associates, unless they initiate a handshake, I simply put my two hands together and do a slight bob of the head.
I wonder - does anyone kiss the Queen of England on greeting?
Jimmy Carter did---a major boo boo. She's un-kissable.
The Russians kiss - here Brezhnev and Honecker
Bush too
Shortly after Jane snapped the photo, Bush made his move...
Hehe, it looks like the mustache got stuck on Bush in an odd historical way.
Bush is thinking, "These lips are so much sweeter than Laura's. So....soft....so very, very soft."
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace