Does anyone remember this joke? Usually it’s tiold by prepubescent boys in an effort to show that someone is unmanly; as follows:
To look at the bottom of his shoe, a boy is supposed bend his leg at the knee and hold up his shoe so he can look down at it, in front of him, while a girl sticks her foot straight back and then twists her body to look at it.
To look at his nails a boy holds his hands palm up and and curls his fingers so the nails show, but a girl holds her hands palms down and fingers straight out, and a little splayed.
To look at the sky the boy glances up for, preferably, less than a second. A girl looks at it longer, and may twist her head off the central meridian.
Soo…does anyone know where and when this originated?
I never heard the sky bit. We substituted sweaters/T-shirts.
(Guys grab the back of the neck-hole and haul up; girls gather it from the bottom with crossed arms and lift. This may have become outdated as guys had to start paying for their own overpriced sweaters before stretching them out of shape.)
I’m a girl and I grab my sweater/t-shirt from the collar and yank up. That’s pretty much how I take everything off. My reasoning: grabbing from the bottom turns it inside out.
First time I ever heard any of these, it was the first two and it was a Gay Test on an episode of Murphy Brown. The guy did one the Gay Way and one the Straight Way, but I don’t remember which was which.
The nails one makes sense. I am typically looking at my nails to see if they are unpresentably dirty, and the loose fist gives you a better perspective on the under-nail area. Also makes the thumb available to pull the pad of the finger away from the nail and Really See What’s Going On Under There.
Whereas, if I spent forty bucks getting my nails done, I’d sure as hell want to see them in context. It’s pretty safe to say that men spend less on manicures than women.
And the one about ths sky is easy. I grew up as a boy. If someone told me to look at the sky, I would expect a punch in the gut or a tap in the balls to be quickly forthcoming.
Ah! So little girls don’t expect a sucker-punch? I, amazingly, also grew up as a boy and then had two sons (and no daughters) so I’ve not had much experience with them.
When do they punch each other? When one is looking at the sole of her shoe, maybe?
The shoe one strikes me as a wardrobe issue. If you’re wearing a skirt, especially a short or straight one, you can’t really spread your thighs and flip your foot up in front - well, not with any dignity. So you’re reduced to sticking it up in back and looking over your shoulder.
Since I hardly ever wear skirts, I pictured myself doing it the “man” way when reading the OP.
(It reminds me of the scene in Huck Finn when he gets caught crossdressing. The woman figures him out because when something falls in his lap, he snaps his legs shut to catch it. Obviously a girl would open her legs to let her long skirt act as a safety net for the object, so he must be a boy.)
Wasn’t there a scene in either Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn where Tom (or Huck) was dressed as a girl, and someone tossed him a ball? Tom (or Huck) closed his legs when he caught the ball, which instantly gave away his boy-ness, because a girl would open her legs to catch the ball in the folds of her skirt.
I’d look at the sole of my shoe like a boy. While I do wear skirts frequently, they’re almost always long skirts, and so it would not be “immodest” to do that the “boy” way. If I was wearing a pencil skirt, I guess I’d pretty much have to do it the girl way!
I’d absolutely look at my nails like a girl. That was funny, what stolichnaya said about seeing the nails “in context,” but he’s right! (pauses a second to admire her shiny red fingernails…the girly way.)
And I probably would gaze at the sky for a few seconds. Can’t say I’ve ever been suckerpunched.
Right general idea, but not quite. Huck gives himself away by throwing well (when trying to nail a rat skittering on the floor). He catches himself, however, and throws wildly after his first shot nearly hit. He alter drops a clue of yarn into his lap, and closes his knees rather than do the skirt trick.
According to the test I may or may not be a boy. I do boy shoes always, girl nails sometimes, and am evenly split on the sky.
But I’ve always, always, always hated bending over backwards- even if I was wearing a fairly short skirt I’d rather risk the flashing and put my foot forward, that’s how much I hate bending back. The nails depend on whether it’s to see how the polish is (girl style) or how long and clean they are (boy style.)
The sky depends on what’s in the sky when I look up at first. If it’s interesting, of course I’ll look around more.
