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Comment by ucarion | Hacker News Reader

It's a bit outdated to think this rigidly about things, but when a subject has one shoulder higher than the other, tilting the head toward the higher shoulder is historically considered a more "masculine" pose, and toward the lower shoulder a more "feminine" one.

This webpage is a good articulation of the classic way of thinking about portraiture, but I should clarify that I disagree with the entire premise of rigid "masculine" and "feminine" posing:

https://www.spencervillebearcats.com/userfiles/88/my%20files...

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Sounds like something that could self-perpetuate, and probably not worthwhile fighting against? Like blue is for boys (although used to be for girls: 1918: “the generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls.”).

I think GP was simply pointing out the current connotation, not advocating or fighting against it.

While the photo might not be a good example, in the animal kingdom exposing your neck, like exposing your belly, in an overall non-assertive way would indicate submissiveness. It's in your interest to be submissive if you doubt you will win in combat. I'll leave the thought experiment to the reader as to whether females or males do better in combat and why this head tilt might be predominantly nature not nurture.

Reminds me of that priceless paragraph from Michael Collins' autobiography about how the Air Force sent their astronaut candidates to a "charm school" in order to increase their chances of being selected by NASA, where among other things they learned how to correctly hold their hands on their hips:

"… in my opinion, the apogee of the course was surely reached the day we learned how to hold our hands on our hips (doesn’t anyone learn anything at home any more?). Thumbs forward, ladies! Thumbs to the rear, gentlemen! To reverse would not only be gauche (perhaps even worse) but, of course, would result in instant detection and rejection by NASA, the old meanies. I have studied this matter exhaustively in later years, and have found burly construction workers with thumbs forward and mincing fairies with thumbs aft, but then they obviously are not charm-school grads."

Thanks for the useful source information, although it shows the masculine head tilt as leaning towards the lower shoulder and vice versa for the feminine one.

yup, I got it backwards!

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