walking the walk

[Sarah Dreams]

After reading some of the posts here on Susan's, I have been paying closer attention to the way GGs walk and move. It was said here that girls walk placing one foot in front of the other as if walking on a line while guys straddle the line. It has also been said that women lead with their chests. My observations have not borne this out.

Most of the women of all ages and levels of femininity walk as if they are straddling a line. Their feet are closer together than men's, but only runway models have I seen doing the tightrope walk. Girls seem to keep their knees closer together which seems to be a function of anatomy due to the spread of their hips. I tried keeping my knees close together and it did make my walk more feminine. It also gave my hips a bit more sway compensating for the proximity of my knees and the use of different muscles in maintaining that posture.

Women lead with their hips. Try thrusting your hips forward and you'll see what I mean. It also has the effect of putting your chest forward from its previous position as well which probably accounts for the observation that women lead with their chests. I also recall the Back to the Future movie where marty had to play at being a girl. The making of documentary featured this scene and the female coach who taught Michael Fox how to walk like a girl. The coach said this very thing - that girls lead with their hips. She also saif that women bounce or move their upper bodies very little if at all. This makes for the effect that girls are gliding. Movements of the arms, legs, head and other parts are softer and flowy according to the coach. men tend to make quick jerky motions whereas women ease into each movement with grace.

I hope this helps. I know it has helped me appear more feminine.

[TamTam]

That's all very true. I've read stuff about the way women walk and then I pay attention to how I walk to see if any of it makes sense [I'm a GG].  And generally, the 'classic info' that's floating around is wrong, at least for me.  My feet do straddle a line, if I walked with one foot in front of the other tracing a line I'd topple over, and I definitely lead with my hips more.  If I led with my boobs I'd look silly.   I've never seen anyone who does that.

One thing I've noticed is that guys tend to lead with their shoulders.  To move the shoulders and keep the hips steady is a very masculine way to walk.  Whereas women's shoulders stay steady while their hips move.   High heels tend to make my hips sway more, for some reason.  Maybe it's a balance thing.

Maybe, just as added practice for getting that nice little hip movement when you walk, whenever you dance to music, move your hips.  There's muscles in your abdomen that, when they're stretched and exercised, can make the movement very fluid and natural. Kinda like belly dancing.  So that when you walk, you don't have to think about moving your hips, it'll happen on its own.  I don't know if that'll actually make a difference, though, it just occurred to me.

[sarahb]

Yes, lead with the hips. I've been noticing this a lot lately and have been slowly noticing my walk heading that way as well. The tightrope walk is supermodel walk, some girls actually do walk like that but it's not really the norm. Everything else that TamTam said is true as well.

[krisalyx]

walk with your hips? how the hell are you supposed to do that do you swing your hips while your walking, if i did that i'd fall flat on my face, i mean hell standing up straight and crossing my legs is a pain anyway.

[TamTam]

I found something interesting about this when I was reading a magazine today.  It's not really useful, per se, but it might give something interesting to think about.

It's in His Walk
Men and women have very different gaits—and viewers tend to perceive stereotypically masculine motion as approaching, whereas a feminine saunter seems to move away. As reported in September in the journal Current Biology, volunteers were asked to guess the direction of motion of point-map figures, in which the image of a walker's body is reduced to a few dots at his or her major joints. The figures are the same from the front and back—so they could theoretically be perceived as walking either toward or away from the viewer—but volunteers perceived the swaying hips and protruding elbows of a feminine walk as moving away, and they saw neutral and masculine gaits as coming nearer. The researchers suggest that because men offer more of a threat, our ancestors may have benefited from assuming that a male figure was walking toward them—that way the observer could get ready to flee or fight. But as children, early humans may have been better off assuming that a woman, perhaps their mother, was walking away—then, they would need to follow.  —Rachel Mahan

[krisalyx]

well i just realized this because ive had multiple surgries on my legs & due to that i walk rather i don't know bow leged stiffled or what ever you want to call it the gist of it is i do walk with a swing in my hips, and this was totaly unintentional but every time that i went out some arsehole whould always scream the f word at me (and yes i've gotta stop being so think headed about it) i'm learning i guess

[krisalyx]

dancing? now why in hades didn't i think of that i mean that helps right?

[Jushi]

The tight rope walk is likely just exagerating the general feminin walk. Humans have a tendency, from what I've seen, to exagerate everything to make it "perfect"

[Holly-chan]

I have been watching my girlfriend (who is GG) walk around the house and have been trying to emulate her gait. I have to say it's kind of hard to do. I've noticed that she walks slower than I do, even though our legs are relatively close to the same length. Her steps tend to be closer together, and even though she doesn't "walk the tight rope", her feet are closer to each other.
I've found that it's just very helpful to have a GG around that you can watch and not worry about it.

[Genevieve Swann]

I have found that it helps me by placing one foot in line with the other. By concentrating on walking  a straight line my hips naturally sway more. As far as hip motion ,it is actually fairly easy as long as I pay attention. There is still a long way to go before my walk is perfect. If I try imitating the walk of some of my female friends I'll be lost. My best female friend is lucky to be able to stand most of the time and walking is not an option. "But officer I had to drive. I'm too drunk to walk." That's my friend Sandy. I think I'll go practice walk today.

[Miniar]

My dad used to tell me that my walk was such that I came "sailing in like a flagship". When I pestered him to explain he said that I walked with authority in my step, like many men like to think they do, but rarely accomplish. It made me smile.