Body Language by Julius Fast

Author:Julius Fast
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 1969-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Pickups, AC and DC

On the theme of deviates, among both male homosexuals and lesbians there are definite body language signals that can establish intimate communication. Homosexuals “cruising” on a street can identify a sympathetic soul without exchanging a word.

“Making contact is relatively simple,” a young homosexual recently explained in a survey. “The first thing to do is to identify your man, and it’s hard to tell you how it’s done, because there are so many little signals. Some of it is the way he walks, though many of us walk like perfectly normal men. Mostly, I guess, it’s the eye contact. You look and you know. He holds your eye just a little too long, and then his eye may travel down your body. The quick glance to the crotch and away is a sure giveaway.”

Discussing his own signals, he explains, “I walk past and then look back, If there’s any interest he’ll look back too. Then I slow down, stop to look at a store window. Then we’ll drift back towards each other . . . and contact!”

The signals are rigid and formalized, and sometimes they are unspoken but on the verbal band, though not related to the words. Dr. Goffman tells of a homosexual who stopped into a “gay” bar for a drink but had no interest in picking anyone up. He took out a cigarette, but found he had no matches. He suddenly realized that to ask anyone at the bar for a match was the understood signal, “I am interested. Are you?”

In the end he bought a pack of matches from the bartender.

The homosexual’s signals for initiating contact are not far divorced from the normal man’s signals for picking up a girl. A long time ago, when I was a soldier on leave in Boston, a soldier friend cajoled me into coming out with him to “pick up some dames.”

I had had no experience at this, but I had to play the “bigshot” since I couldn’t admit my ignorance. I went along and watched my friend carefully. Within half an hour he had “picked up” five girls and selected two for us. His technique was built on body language.

Walking along the street, or more properly, sauntering along, he would catch a prospect’s eye, hold it a bit longer than was necessary and lift one eyebrow. If the girl faltered in her stride, stopped to look at her compact, to fix her stockings or window-shop down the street, it was one of a number of return signals that meant, “I am aware of you and possibly interested. Let’s pursue this further.”

My friend would then break stride, turn and follow behind the girl for a block. The following without making contact was a necessary part of the ritual and allowed him to begin vocal contact, to comment to me, a third party, on her dress, her walk, her looks—all in semi-humorous terms, a face-saving device to avoid offense.

At first she would pretend his advances were unwelcome. If this stage lasted too long it would be mutually agreed that his advances really were unwelcome.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.