Illustrate and discuss the nature and significance of differences identified by researchers between the 'body language' of males and females in Western culture.
Guidance
For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the general criteria.
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What Key Features Do I Look For?
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Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here.
Advice for this particular assignment: Focus on everyday behaviour rather than on the representation of body language in the mass media. The most relevant lectures are lecture 3 and lecture 4. Don't forget to include, in particular: smiling, mutual gaze, touch and posture. For instance, in her classic study, Nancy Henley reported that women return smiles (especially to males) more often than males do, while males are more inhibited at smiling back, especially to other males (Henley 1977, pp. 176-7). With an opposite-sex gaze women tend to avert their eyes, while men tend to return the gaze; men show a strong tendency to avoid eye contact with other males (ibid., p. 165). Note Henley's argument that such differences are likely to be more about relative power than sex. Explore and discuss the point made by both Henley and Wex that men tend to occupy more territory, notably sitting with legs apart (Birdwhistell 1970, p. 44; Henley 1977, pp. 135-6; Wex 1979). Refer, in addition, to a more recent source such as Judith Hall (1990); you can, of course, also Google for Hall's more recent work. On the beach, women employ more diverse postures than men (Beattie 1988, pp. 82 & 88): this is consistent with the traditionally more limited range of options for men in clothing styles and colours--so what does this suggest about the 'performance' of (stereotypical) masculinity?
In discussing sex and gender, remember the distinction ('sex' being a biological category and 'gender' a cultural category), and do not slip into naive gender essentialism ('all men...', 'women naturally...', 'the female mind'). Don't just try to be 'politically correct', however - if you mean 'male' and 'female' refer to sex (as in 'both sexes') but if you are discussing 'masculinity' and 'femininity' refer to gender. Remember that gender is inflected by other factors (such as age, social background and so on). Definitions of key terms can be found in Chandler and Munday (2011).
Note also that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations is expected. These should be inserted electronically into your Word document rather than cut-and-pasted in. You can scan such illustrations in from print sources, save them from disk-based sources, download them from online sources (such as my Powerpoint slides) or even create them from scratch in a graphics package. Use them to help you to make points more effectively. Label each one, 'Figure 1' etc. and add a caption.
Some suggested reading
Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!
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