Who does more winking?

[Conchita]

Who do you think does more winking – on the forums as in real life – men or women? It doesn’t have to be a general survey, just your opinion. I didn’t go counting all the wink Emoticons on the site, but my guess is that there are more ‘he-winkers’.

According to my mother, when she was young it was considered rude for women to do so. If a man winked at you in those days, his intentions couldn’t possibly be very good, not to say indecent. Times change and, even if
intentions are the same (good old human nature), reactions are not.

I’ve never got used to doing it myself, but I see winking as a harmless and cute signal of complicity – just the tiniest little bit naughty and challenging, perhaps. What do you think?

[Alan]

Hi Conchita,

You certainly come up with them! Who’d have thought we’d be discussing winking on the forum? But it started me thinking about the amount of communication carried out by body language. Come to think of it why not a body language site? We could then delve into semiotics and really go to town. Talking of winks I learnt about the origin of a word the other day on a new programme on BBC TV called Balderdash and Piffle which takes a look every week at a group of words trying to find when they were first used. If they find an earlier reference to the one in the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), it is then presented to some of the editors and if there is sufficient evidence, it goes into thedictionary. Anyhow back to the origin I was talking about. The word is hoodwink meaning trick or deceive and it comes from the procedure of putting a hood over the head of a person just before they were hanged.

Now there’s a cheering thought for a Wednesday morning.

Alan

[Sidle_Jinks]

Maybe this would be interesting:

@Alecia Wolf

The analysis of emoticon (emotional icon) use in online newsgroups appears to reinforce the stereotype of the emotional female and the inexpressive male until further examination suggests otherwise. The most interesting finding of this study is illustrated by the pattern of change that develops for both genders when they move from a predominantly same gender newsgroup to a mixed-gender newsgroup. The changes that take place in emoticon use when moving from same-gender to mixed-gender newsgroups indicate that rather than the emotional expression of females being silenced or muted by male encoding of emoticons, males adopt the female standard of expressing more emotion. Furthermore, women have added dimensions including solidarity, support, assertion of positive feelings, and thanks, which were absent from the male-created definition of emoticons and their use.

Source:
Wolf A. Emotional Expression Online: Gender Differences in Emoticon Use // CyberPsychology & Behavior, Oct 2000, Vol. 3, No. 5: 827-833
liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10 … 0050191809

[Sidle_Jinks]

And another interesting thing (I was really surprised upon reading it!) (formatting is mine):

@Christine Lee

Tone also differs greatly between the two kinds of same-gender conversations. In an average 40 line conversation, there will be approximately 32 smileys if the participants are female, but only 9 if the participants are male. When addressing each other, men will use derogatory names 80% of the time, but females only 0%-2% of the time. Derogatory name calling, harsh teasing, and a general lack of emoticon or smiley usage characterize online male conversations.
…
In contrast, conversations between females are rife with emoticons and smileys and much more sympathetic in tone. If teasing exists, it is of a gentler nature than the sort seen in male conversations.
…
…In instant messaging, a woman reading through male IM conversations may be shocked at their brusque treatment of each other, while a man reading through female IM conversations may be surprised by the emotional level of those talks.
…
Males who rarely use emoticons or smileys when speaking with other males will use more emoticons and smileys when conversing with females. Females use emoticons the same amount with males as they do with other females.
…
In general, males will use around 21 smileys every 40 lines of text when speaking to a female, as opposed to 9 when speaking to a male, and females will use about 35, a number close to their 32 smileys when speaking with another female. Gender behavior changes in mixed gender conversations, but it is the male behavior that undergoes the more dramatic changes, not the female’s.

Source:
Lee, C. The Mercury Project for Instant Messaging Study: How Does Instant Messaging Affect Interaction Between the Genders?

The full article is available at stanford.edu/class/pwr3-25/g … enders.pdf at no cost. It’s very intersting (from my point of view), but is too long to be cited completely