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| Source: Susan Medina |
This is two women shaking hands.
Ugh.
As a child, a great-uncle once chastised my older brother for having a wimpy handshake. "You should always have a firm handshake, son." Hearing this, I resolved also to always have a firm handshake, too (I was never one to be outdone by my brothers).
So I pride myself on having a good, firm handshake. And I find that shaking hands with another person of similar standards is thoroughly...satisfying. Like giving a good high five. One that makes a nice echo. No one wants a sissy high five.
And I don't want a sissy handshake.
I've found that most guys have this figured out. Perhaps a firm handshake is a sign of manliness they don't dare neglect. A wimpy handshake says, "I have no upper body strength." What guy would admit to that?
Girls, on the other hand, have by and large failed in this arena. A firm handshake doesn't require bulging biceps, my friends, although I regularly see women hefting huge loads of laundry or their own chubby toddlers. Then they give offer a handshake like it's a wet spaghetti noodle.
And I ask myself, why?
Perhaps girls are not meant to shake hands with other girls. In the end, I think handshakes were designed as a man's greeting, and women adopted it later as default. Maybe we should just hug. But can you hug the wife of some guy that your husband knows from business school that you are meeting for the first time?
I think high fives might be the obvious solution.
I think high fives might be the obvious solution.
Except maybe the sissy handshake girls would also give sissy high-fives.
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Hang on everybody
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Hang on everybody
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I just asked Isaac what he thought about sissy girl handshakes. His solution? "Maybe we should go back to kissing girls' hands when we meet them."
Good. Something even more awkward for me to do when meeting another girl. Faced with that choice, I'd take a sissy handshake from a girl any day.
Camber you make me laugh! So I've been thinking...I don't think I have a sissy handshake but now I'm all worried...you'll have to catch me off guard and ask for one to try me :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is the same thing, but what I really dislike are the fingers-only handshakes, where they act like they are picking your fingers out of a candy bowl and then putting them back. I want inner thumb to inner thumb, people! Although I also like the idea of high fives.
ReplyDeleteNow I've been thinking...when I meet a new person, and that person is a man, they usually want to shake my hand. When meeting another woman for the first time, it seems like I usually skip that part (with the exception of a job interview). Shaking hands is not my favorite thing...I think it would be hilarious if we all walked around high-fiving each other. I support this idea!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the points that you have made. I hate it when people (guys or girls) give loose, lame handshakes. It just gives me the heebie-jeebies sometimes. Haha...not really, but it leaves this weird dead fish sort of feel in my hand. And it's hard to take them seriously when they have a weak handshake.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I also think that it's awkward to shake hands with girls. Like both of you don't really know if you are supposed to shake hands or not...but hugging isn't really the most comfortable thing either especially if you don't know them very well or if one of you isn't really the hugging type.