Body Language of Leg Spreading
Cue: Leg Spreading
Synonym(s): Spreading The Legs, Open Legs, Leg Placed Over The Arm Of The Chair, Uncrossed Legs.
Description: Legs that are spread while seated or standing rather than crossed.
In One Sentence: Leg spreading is a sign of dominance as it puts the genitals on display.
How To Use it: Spread your legs when you want others to see you as dominant and authoritative. The posture serves both women and men in the same fashion, but men are afforded more social liberty when it comes to dominance displays.
Men can benefit most from this posture in business and in dating as dominance is a valued trait in these context. Women should resist the urge to display dominance in this fashion, but if they absolutely feel comfortable displaying this way, they must wear long pants. Opening the legs with feminine attire including skirts and dresses, or even shorts can give the impression of sexual easiness and will have quite the opposite connotation to that desired.
Resources:
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For this reason, leg spreading has two very different implications for men and women. For women, opening the legs permits sexual access, whereas men’s sexuality, while it can be displayed via legs open, is not required to complete the act of sex. Given the aforementioned sexual differences between men and women, legs open is more in line with taking up space in men than it is for women. Recall that taking up space is inherent in all dominance displays. In women, leg spreading, whilst it does indeed function to take up more space, it is confounded with it as an overt sexual access display thereby rending it as less dominant and more sexual.
However, in dating, if women wish to tease men, they might permit men to see the inside of their thigh or even flash men outright by un-crossing a re-crossing the legs.
An exaggerated leg spread amplifies the meaning. So to appear highly dominant, spread the legs as wide as possible. To appear overly sexual, also spread the legs out further.
It is ill advised to for men to spread the legs in full view of more dominant people than themselves including bosses, father-in-law’s, and so forth. Leg spreading may be seen by other highly dominant men as a challenge which may invite confrontation.
Context: a) General b) Dating.
Verbal Translation: a) “I’m dominant and open at the same time so I’m spreading my legs open to put my genitals on open display for others to see and judge. I’m not ashamed.” a) “I’m careless and improper and do not hold gentleman or feminine body postures – or just don’t care how I am perceived.” a) “I’m more comfortable with my legs uncrossed than with them crossed and do not intend to send any particular signal.” b) “I’m a sexually open or liberated (or dominant) woman so I’m keeping my legs open as a sexual invitation.” b) “I’m a sexually dominant man and keep my legs open so you can admire my masculinity.”
Variant: The leg over the chair is as a particularly overt and offensive way of spreading the legs.
Cue In Action: a) He sat at the corner of the couch with his legs spread as wide as he could. Being particularly cowardly, he followed this up by holding his drink between his legs serving as a shield. b) Sharon Stone in the movie Basic Instinct sent a clear message as she slowly uncrossed and re-crossed her legs while being interrogated.
Meaning and/or Motivation: When done by men it is a dominant crotch display, and when done by women usually construed as a sexual invitation or that they have a crass attitude or are “easy.”
Other times, women spread their legs when they are either unaware that it is not socially acceptable or that they have an easy-going personality. In modern times, women have been encouraged to carry more male-like characteristics and are not scorned when they do not close their legs. This has been a recent cultural shift. Generally, as women graduate into adulthood in their late teens, they will adopt more “lady-like” postures on their own, motivated by their own instincts and tend to cross their legs or at the least keep them tightly pressed together unless relaxing in their own domain.
Legs uncrossed is a signal of openness, acceptance and signal of being easy going. This is of particular importance as it pertains to women, as it can taken as a sexual signal or invitation, making women appear easy, “loose” or at best crass or improper. Women wishing to appear dominant will find this posture comfortable, but it will be accompanied by other male typical gestures such as throwing an arm over the back of the chair to take up more space and loud boisterous behaviour.
Men, on the other hand, have the benefit of using the uncrossed legs signal for more than one reason. Men can have their legs uncrossed to display dominance and authority. This is often culturally permitted in men. In men, the meaning of the leg spread is determined by its context and the manner in which it occurs. Men in seated positions spread their legs as a dominance display as it puts the genitals out for everyone to see.
The leg spreading posture is one which is best analyzed by picturing people fully nude as it helps us visualize the image they wish to portray. While we may wish for equality between the sexes, leg spreading is one such posture that illustrates a key difference between men and women’s sexuality and dominance. While spreading the legs shows assertiveness in men, it often comes across negatively when done by sexually mature woman.
The degree to which leg spreading happens is important in both sexes. Spreading is positively correlated with dominance display. That is, the greater the leg spread, the greater is the dominance display. The legs cocked at shoulder width while seated, is comfortable and natural, even for both sexes (while wearing pants), but once the legs break that distance, the signal becomes much more overt. In other words, once the legs meet their maximum angle, it is as if the genitals are yelling at the top of their lungs through a loudspeaker begging to be noticed!
In a standing position, legs spread at or slightly beyond shoulder width signals dominance in a more acceptable way. In fact, having the legs uncrossed while standing is the most appropriate way to stand since it appears open, accepting and confident.
Cue Cluster: The leg spread is accompanied by other dominant body language such as spreading the arms out, such as on the arm of the next chair, leaning back, hands on the hips if standing and hands away from the face and not fidgeting.
Body Language Category: Arrogance or arrogant body language, Authoritative body language, Courtship displays, Confident body language, Crotch display, Dominant body language, Expansive movements, High confidence body language.