I don’t know if it’s really a parlor trick but I couldn’t think of any other way to title my topic.
Does anyone remember the episode of All in the Family where they placed a chair sideways in front of a wall, a person would bend over and place the top of their head on the wall and then pick up the chair in that position? From what I recall (I was a kid at the time), women could do it but men couldn’t. I remember it being a big thing where everyone was trying it at home.
Yeah, I remember that. Has to do with distribution of weight or something like that.
Yes, it used to be a thing when I was in college in that era. It has something to do with the relative proportions of men’s and women’s bodies and leverage. Women have a lower center of gravity.
Yep. I remember my family all trying with a dining room chair.
The “chair challenge” seems to have surfaced recently again on TikTok. Rather than differences in center of gravity, evidently it is due to the fact that men’s feet are longer so that they end up being farther from the wall and have less leverage.
This was demonstrated at our elementary school in the mid '70s. It was part of some sort of “community outreach” presentation by our police department. The male student was a tall jock. The female student had, for her age, a rather large bust. I made the assumption that girls had boob muscles that boys lacked and, on some level, have believed that ever since.
Interesting. Thanks.
A short man would find it easier to do, but even at the same height women would have an advantage since men have proportionately larger feet.
I remember doing this as a then-11-year-old boy. I picked up the chair easily. Instead of being cheered or congratulated, though, it just kind of reinforced the “less than masculine” reputation I was trying kind of desperately to shed.
Same here. 