Body Language

[HandsInTheDark]

Perhaps we should start a thread on shoes/lingerie and their meaning.

No. Shoes are complicated. Men were not meant to understand.

(A fashion conscious friend of mine once talked to me for an hour straight about what shoes meant. I think I learned a few things but mostly I learned that women speak a language in their clothing that men do not understand, no matter how attentive they try to be. Clothing is a religion for many women; you're born to the faith or you will never grasp it.)

 

[ElectricBlue]

So far as I can figure out, women dress to impress other women, and undress to impress men

... women speak a language in their clothing that men do not understand, no matter how attentive they try to be. Clothing is a religion for many women; you're born to the faith or you will never grasp it.)

 

[Kethandra]

Yes, this! Some readers love these little details. I believe in telling a character through their shoes. An Irish free-spirit in green ballet flats, a disciplined businesswoman in indigo kitten heels. Lingerie as well can tell a tale. Does a woman always wear their sexiest set, or is there that time when the unexpected encounter comes and she's wearing superhero boyshorts? Perhaps we should start a thread on shoes/lingerie and their meaning.

I hope you're not implying superhero boyshorts are anything other than extremely sexy. Especially unexpected ones.

 

[Kethandra]

T
; if that's how you describe beauty I'm not hanging around to see how you describe sex.

That line is so perfect, I'm going to consider it a Christmas present.

 

[Gorza]

I hope you're not implying superhero boyshorts are anything other than extremely sexy. Especially unexpected ones.

A pair of Wonder Woman's for Christmas?

 

[Kethandra]

A pair of Wonder Woman's for Christmas?

It's all good, but I was picturing a Bat or a Krytonic S accenting a nice flat belly

 

[Hypoxia]

No. Shoes are complicated. Men were not meant to understand.

I have remarked on our visits to Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico, one of the gateways to Copper Canyon. This formerly very rich mining town is now a center of fine footwear, from Italian-quality shoes to the wildest cowboy/girl boots.

In most places, when you encounter someone on the street, you give them an up-and-down appraisal, maybe pausing at key anatomical points. In Parral, eyes go down, to your feet. If you are not adequately shod, you are dismissed as irrelevant, almost subhuman. Sneakers are beneath contempt.

Shoes are complicated. Shoes in Parral are sacred. Thou shalt not blaspheme.

 

[Handley_Page]

I hope you're not implying superhero boyshorts are anything other than extremely sexy. Especially unexpected ones.

If superman is so smart, why does he wear his underpants outside his tights ?

 

[Penuche]

If superman is so smart, why does he wear his underpants outside his tights ?

1) To stop his tights creeping down his legs.
2) To conceal the contours of his genitals.
3) (Most probable) he was easier to draw like that.

 

[sr71plt]

1) To stop his tights creeping down his legs.
2) To conceal the contours of his genitals.
3) (Most probable) he was easier to draw like that.

To prove he didn't go commando.

 

[Penuche]

To prove he didn't go commando.

There is that, too.

 

[SecondCircle]

This. Pet peeve of mine. In first person, no one describes themselves in detail and even doing it in general terms (claiming to be attractive) has to be handled carefully. In any other form, anyone describing anyone else as a 36C 5'4" 112# had better be an expert dressmaker by trade.

Beauty is a matter of proportion and balance, and I've seen some pig-ugly women with 36C chest and a 24" waist. If you try to sell me on how hot a character is with a bunch of numbers on page one, I'm already gone; if that's how you describe beauty I'm not hanging around to see how you describe sex.

I don't think the numbers themselves are the problem, but rather the way they are utilized.

If you're writing a character that is checking a woman out and making guesses as to her breast size, I don't think that's outside the realm of reality. I work with horndogs that do think this way, in numbers. "Man, she musta had like 36 D's or something." Or about Tommy Lee steering a boat with his dick. "He was steering it with that thang man, hadda be like a 10 or 12 inch cock dude."

There are people in reality that defer to numbers as a shortcut to descriptions. (Whether or not they grossly exaggerate.) If you were writing, say, first person POV or even an intimate 3rd, characters can realistically think like this.

The problem is if the writer uses it as a cheap shortcut. If they simply rattle of head to toe description with exact measurements just to be lazy and avoid more clever and smoothly flowing ways to integrate details, THAT is what kills it. It reads dull, like a police report. Leaves little to the imagination. Ultimately, it fails to immerse me as a reader. It's just the author TELLING me she's a redhead. There's no action, no creative visual that lets me SEE the character. It's a blatant stat.