Did Harris' Handshake Disarm/Disorient Trump?

WASHINGTON - Sept. 11, 2024 - PRLog -- "What do men do standing up and women do sitting down and dogs do by lifting one leg?  Shake hands, of course!"

This old joke reminds us that, before about the 1980s, women usually didn't initiate handshakes with men and, if a man initiated a handshake with a women, she was often expected to remain seated while accepting the hand he held out to initiate an ancient custom.

The custom of women not initiating a handshake has to some extent faded away, but it has not completely disappeared.

For example, one female author noted: "One woman in an etiquette class was shocked when she realized that she was not teaching her four-year-old daughter to shake hands, but she had already started teaching her two-year-old son to shake hands."

Donald Trump, like the outdated joke above, is old, and therefore probably formed many of his perceptions and expectations about women years ago; an observation which may help explain many of his controversial remarks about women.

Thus he was almost certainly surprised and taken aback when Kamala Harris unexpectedly strode up to him, invading "his personal space," and stuck out her right hand in a way he could not overlook or avoid, suggests the public interest law professor known for more than 100 legal wins fighting discrimination against women.

This simple and apparently well planned maneuver may well have disarmed and even somewhat disoriented Trump - knocking him off his stride - and set the tone for, and helped to precipitate, his debate performance, argues public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

This shocking reversal of roles, and its probable effect on Trump's poor debate performance, did not go unnoticed.

For example one media reported pointed out: "Harris initiated the greeting, walking to behind Trump's podium for the brief moment after they each took the stage . . In photos of the encounter, Harris appears to be smirking and giving Trump a side-eye."

Another articles pointed out that "As the two presidential candidates entered the debate stage, Kamala Harris strode across it and offered her hand to Donald Trump to shake, setting a confident tone that didn't flag throughout the debate. . . Trump, appearing to grow angrier through the night . ."

Trump's deeply ingrained ideas and expectations about the different roles to be played by women as compared with men, including something as simple as shaking hands, may affect many of his actions in the future; whether as president or as a man defeated in the race by a women, and a Black woman at that.

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