Week 2

This week in class I was introduced to a lot of new terms. The skit on Tuesday was not only entertaining but it really helped illustrate some of the key concepts. Micro-interactions is one of the terms that was much easier to understand after watching the skit. Something as subtle as eye contact is a micro-interaction that males and females do differently. This became clear to me when the "female" maintained eye contact and the "male" tended to look away (opposite of the norm). Because this micro-interaction was not in line with what we would consider the social norm, something seemed wrong about the skit. It is amazing how much of a difference such a small thing can make.

One question that stemmed from this idea of men and women following the socials norms was can you choose not to follow them? For instance, men typically claim power and women get it indirectly but what if a woman tries to claim it? Although there are some exceptations, I think men would usually be taken back by an aggressive woman and would probably prefer to be in charge. Thus, when individuals go against social norms they tend to be less appealing to others when it comes to relationships.

Something I found really interesting in Thursday's discussion was the term body-reflective practice. I have heard that women live longer than men and I always just accepted it but never really thought about why this is the case. Now it makes sense to me because men tend to have more labor-intensive jobs and are less likely to go to the doctor for minor problems because they don't want to appear weak. I hope we explore this topic further next week.