Christopher_Dragon wrote:

full point wrote:Is this still the way to do it?

Just pee on their shoes.
It makes them happy in the gushy spot.

this made me laugh more heartily than i have laughed so far today. Salut, Mr. Dragon!

...as far as the shaking of hands goes, i always shake hands with ladies to whom i am introduced. i've never heard of this rule. i do not, however, give hugs. to anyone. i am a cold, Lutheran-raised Wisconsinite. i require 36" of space in every direction. please stay out of my bubble so as not to make me uncomfortable.

if you offer it to the dude offer it to the chick as well. i too am the anti-hug so i always appreciate a good handshake from either gender. unless their hands look dirty in which case i'll pretend i have an issue with touching people period.

Maybe it depends on the girl, or the situation, but personally I appreciate a friendly handshake.

I wonder if this rule you speak of morphed out of the old dictum that a man should only kiss a lady's hand if she offers it to him.

In some cultures, offering your hand to a woman is very inappropriate.

Of course, I read that in a Miss Manners column....so take it for what it's worth.

Linus Van Pelt wrote: But in neo-USA 20x6, I'll meet a woman like I meet a man, with my hand held out. Nice to meet you.

full point wrote:(shook?)

No, shaken.

Ok, in the USA I'd agree with you- it would practically be a faux pas not to shake a woman's hand.

But I'm curious how this would be in other cultures....

What if you were to meet a Russian woman?

Or an Inuit...?

full point wrote:(shook?)

In parlance of the Official queensbridge murderers:

Ain't no such thing as halfway shook.

nihil wrote:In some cultures, offering your hand to a woman is very inappropriate.

Of course, I read that in a Miss Manners column....so take it for what it's worth.

This is true and it got me in some awkward situations when I visited Spain the first time.

Mazec wrote:

Linus Van Pelt wrote: But in neo-USA 20x6, I'll meet a woman like I meet a man, with my hand held out. Nice to meet you.

full point wrote:(shook?)

No, shaken.

Ok, in the USA I'd agree with you- it would practically be a faux pas not to shake a woman's hand.

But I'm curious how this would be in other cultures....

What if you were to meet a Russian woman?

Or an Inuit...?

Good questions. If I were in an unfamiliar culture, hopefully I would have done a little background reading so I had some idea of what I was doing. If I failed to do that, I suppose I would go with my instinct, and take it on a case-by-case. I think most people tend to be fairly understanding when outsiders come in and make faux pas, as long as the outsider is observed to be making a good faith effort. So, yeah, it would depend on context:

Punk Inuit chick that I meet at a club in Seattle: I offer my hand.
Elderly matriarch of a village in Nunavut, B.F.E.: I wait for her.
Twenty-something Muscovite who came here to study medicine: I offer my hand.
The wizened 90-year-old last surviving Romanov: I wait for her.

Seem fair? I guess, in general, a wait-and-see approach is the most prudent, so if I had any doubt, I probably wouldn't initiate.

I never went for a handshake in Japan (for men or women) unless they went first. Some of them like to, but it's not considered necessary. The bow is required, of course.

I have said this here before (on a similar thread a few months back) that I am fond of the handshake. A man that greets another man but ignores his lady is particularly disrespectful to me. I feel as though I am of no interest because I am just someone else's girlfriend. I am my own person and I like being treated as such. Plus, it's a polite gesture.

I'm one of the only people I know who actually knows how to coordinate their hands in such a way as to shake those of another in a manner of greeting or farewell. Is it a dead art?