While it'd be stupid to argue that young children don't soak up gender differentiation like a sponge (they simply crave that kind of compartmetnalizatin of the world), I'm not convinced that masculine and feminine ways of standing are entirely taught. Women's hips are (generally) shaped differently than men's, and this probably leads us to find different postures comfortable for long-term standing, at least to some extent.

The fact that this has caused stance sto become gendered, probably exposing people whose anatomies/tendencies cause them not to conform to ridicule should be considered, as well, but I wouldn't go quite as far as the commentary in this post has done.

i do believe that women and men stand differently. and yes posture-wise, a cowboy figurine would never look like a cinderella figurine. but these two examples here just show "women" posing. it has nothing to do with comfortable standing. i've never "stood" (or, more accurately, posed) like this, and i will never. besides, i've never seen any women look like this in public!

Normally, I would be all over this - the hypersexualization of girls, the blatent ruin of personhood in favor of feminity, etc.

Except...

I honestly think girls MUST go through a process of hyper-femininity and that the process spans enough diversity to include some hoochy and some butchy. The fact is that casting any stance as "womanly" is absurd whether in 6-inch lucite platforms or in lug-soled Merrills. We are a broad, diverse gender. Girls ( under 18? under 30? under 90?) get to explore as many of the aspects of womanhood as appeal to them. There is danger in wielding too heavy a criticism against this exploration that I think posts in this vein ignore. Through this exploration they are able to glean non-verbal cues from their peers, their family, and society about what their behavior means. They are able to test out aspects of their own (burgeoning and complicated) personalities. As mothers, sisters, friends, and leaders, our role is to reflect, advise, and encourage. Insulting experimentation and play seems a bit obtuse to me. It is the balance that matters - for every fairy costume, a scientist. For every princess, an athlete. Imagination, role-play, and creativity got many of us where we are today. It builds confidence, independence, and problem-solving.

Careful you don't raze the forest while climbing the tree.

About a million years ago, I conducted a little social experiment with myself. I was working in a reasonably crowded urban area, and it occurred to me that men were always getting in my space. They'd sit with their legs apart, while I'd squish myself into about a third of the space they took up; they'd walk straight down the middle of the sidewalk, like they were playing a game of chicken, while I'd get out of their way; and they'd just generally take up more space.

So, for a while, I made the effort to comport myself like a man, just to see what would happen. It was a very strange experience, and it left a very strong impression on me. Men really do expect women to carry themselves differently, to make room for them, to cede to them in a lot of different ways--ways that they don't expect other men to do.

We're expected to be the peacemakers, to make ourselves small and nonthreatening, to approach things sideways instead of head-on, like in the stances shown here. (I'll agree that the ones pictured here are exaggerated versions.) If you're skeptical, spend a little time observing how men and women carry themselves in public. It is far more different than I'd previously thought.

When I was a child, I was told constantly to 'sit like a lady' by people around me. I was also told constantly that I had a very masculine gait. I think it is silly to believe that women stand differently because their lady hips cause them discomfort ( if anything would cause women discomfort while standing for long periods of time, I would think it might be the heels she is wearing) If you google 'women in tribes' and then look at the images, you don't see women standing that way.

I am often told that I "walk too heavily". I have no idea why that would matter, as I'm perfectly comfortable the way I walk and I don't make the house shake like a walking elephant would or anything. The only explanation I can come up with is that people want me to make a conscious effort to walk the way those girls stand- lightly, delicately, and more on my toes and the balls of my feet than my heels and arch. It seems to be about having a constant awareness of one's body and trying for fluidity of movement without moving too much or taking up too much space. It's fascinating, but annoying as hell.

Interesting disscussion, Be prepared, I cannot spell.
I also did not do the uber girly stage on poster mentioned unless you count the 2m in midleschool where I attempted to be more popular. I only marinally got more femmine, maybe a litte mascara or something. I also don't stand or walk to femmine....the most I ever did was when hugely pregnant and all I could do was waddle. That is an example of having your body and hips make you walk a certain way...but many people I know who are very pregnant DO NOT waddle!!
The posturing in they toys is a little disturbing in that cutsie show off way that I find bothersome in all children and adults. I wish even toys like this showed them in a static pose so they could (more likely) be a variety of emotions and situations instead of constantly in show off mode!!

I have scoliosis and one leg longer than the other. Consequently, I stand very "womanly" - one hip cocked - because of the leg length difference, but I walk very "manly" - because I was in a brace for four years and learned not to move my hips while walking.

Isn't anyone else going to say how weird it is that they have a grown woman (or at least a teen of some sort) modelling the dragon fairy child costume?

My daughter went through the super-girly phase in first grade (age 6) and was done with it by age 7, so I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't remember it when she's old enough to be writing comments on blogs, either.

Of course, anyone denying the cultural aspects of "feminine" poses and the performance of feminity can just consider the pigeon-toed pose that Japanese people think it's so cute and feminine, for example. More hime gyaru posing for the camera here, pink Gundam demonstrating that even giant robots can be ultrafeminine here.

While saying that girls "must" go through a hyper-feminine stage is an over-exaggeration, I don't think it's unreasonable to say that many or even a majority of girls do go through this. I have a memory of actively rejecting the feminine phase even though I secretly wanted to be feminine. This is my own experience and not meant to generalize to others.

Anyway I remember in dev psych class we learned about how small children create gender identities, where when they are really little (age 2-3) they are not fixed in their sex/gender and little girls think they might grow up to be men and vice versa. Then a year or two later they lock in to a gender (which may not be the same as their physical sex). Then they tend to have overly rigid rules about gender. That's probably where the girly phase comes in. I had some weird ideas - I thought that only men could be vegetarians, because my dad was a vegetarian and my mom wasn't. I did like pretty dresses as a kid but I pretended not to most of the time.

Anyway, it looks like one of the fairy toys is a tomboy, and her stance is much less girly than the others.

As a child I was always being told to "close your legs" regardless of whether I had a skirt on or trousers.

Well, I still sit with my legs open. It's comfortable. I'm doing it right now!

I'm sure I never went though a hyper-feminine stage, nor did I ever have any desire to.

As for standing and walking, I've observed that my patterns change depending on my mood. When I am depressed, I take up little space, and I look down a lot, and I tend to hold my arms and walk with very short steps. When I am in a relaxed mood, I walk more openly with a wide gait like a man, often with a hand in the pocket. When I am angry or agressive, I stand very straight, with a wide balanced stance, crossing my arms, and I walk very fast and purposefully. When I'm feeling sociable and I want some attention, I walk in a more feminine-type way, swinging my hips a little, with my head up confidently and back straight, chest out a little.

These aren't things I do consciously. My body just wants to express itself that way. I'm not saying that I was born with these standing/walking patterns. Rather, I think they are learned. After all, walking/standing patterns vary greatly depending on culture and rural/city setting, and that's not because of body shape, though clothing might have some influence. There is no doubt in my mind that we unconsciously associate certain postures with femininity or masculinity. Body language is learned.

I like to stand with my weight on one hip and my thumb hooked in my belt loop or pocket. Sometimes I notice myself doing it and say "Gee, thats not girly". Fortunately I no longer care about being girly, not that I ever really did buy into all that.I was raised to neither simper nor be silly, to be a queen rather than a princess. A strong woman rather than a child. Im SOOOO glad too!

It strikes me that the poses the toys are striking in the picture above are not simply "feminine." They are flirtatious. Isn't a pose of head tilted down, looking up at someone with just the eyes a pose of flirtation?

The girls in the costume are not standing in natural poses, I believe the way they are standing is influenced by ballet. They're wearing costumes and standing like dancers, and ballet has very rigid gender roles for its poses.

As for the dragon costume pose, I'm not sure it's particularly feminine. I can certainly picture a male runway model coming to the end and striking a very similar pose, one hand the hip, leaning a bit to one side with legs slightly apart. (Although you could argue that male runway models are not behaving in a masculine norm.)

I agree with many of the posters that some ways of standing and moving are probably biological, but patterning yourself after ballerinas is cultural. I would never sit in public with my legs astride like men often do, and that is because I learned it's not done, not because my legs don't go that way or would not be comfortable.

I think it's telling that this stance is unique to our culture. It is true that people will walk in certain ways based on their hips; wide-hipped persons, for example, move more at the hips and narrow-hipped ones more with their whole body, lurching almost. But that's movement, not posture, and changes at puberty-- children sometimes mimic it, but they don't do it naturally. They kinda move somewhere in between, like people with hips that are kinda between the norms.

But then women are socialized to over-emphasize the walking movement, regardless of their actual hip shape and comfortable gait. Yet in other cultures, stance is different; women may be expected to stand straight, balance evenly, and avoid drawing attention to their butt or chest; or to make themselves smaller. The poses above are designed to be sexualized, to emphasize female sexuality. In cultures where women are expected to have more practical or laborious roles, they stand however is most secure and comfortable-- legs spread, balanced evenly. If a woman lives in a culture where she is socialized to be invisible, she stands straight, but smaller and more withdrawn. Thus, these are not natural poses, or else we all would have them.

Personally, I walk "like a woman" because it is physically uncomfortable for me to move "like a man"-- I have extremely wide hips. That said, how I stand depends on context. I tend to stand like these girls when I am consciously trying to be sexual, but more solidly when I don't think about it.

My mother was very elegant, and I remember her pointing out women (and sometimes men) who "walked like a plowhorse" -- so I was always conscious of the way people move. That and a steady diet of old films conditioned me to appreciate a certain grace in movement, though I like that in men, too -- Sammy Davis Jr or Cary Grant standing and moving over a guy who slouches or galumphs around.

But among the women - Katharine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe and Ann Margret and Sophia Loren, for example -- all move and stand differently. It's really individual, stance and movement.

I remember one quarter of college I became interested in the differences between how men and women sit. Basing their gender purely on physical attributes (which I realize is problematic to base gender on), I was the only woman who would stretch her legs out and not remove them when (I'm sure mostly subconsciously) men crowded me for the wanted space.

This sort of thing has been driving me up the wall for ages, because of a local example. My city zoo has recently got in a pair of pandas, which they are marketing relentlessly. The logo for the panda project are some CG pictures of the two of them, which you can see on "their" site- www.wangwangandfuni.com.

Boy panda: arms crossed, legs apart, strong stance
Girl panda: one leg raised up back behind her, hands together demurely, curved back, a pink flower behind her goddamn ear!

Having gone backstage and interacted with them, it's even more irritating-- the male is a shy, retiring creature, and the female is a boisterous acrobatic clown!

Yeesh, the things people do to try and sell "boy things" and "girl things"...

I don't know how to stand...

I'm so unbelievably unbalanced. I don't know how I manage not to topple over all the time.