Observations Observations from "The Sound of Music"

[Chase]

I just finished watching The Sound of Music, the 1965 Julie Andrews musical. It's not my normal movie-watching fare, so was a bit different for me.

I noticed a couple of things that were eye-opening: one was a technique that I've seen before in older movies and never tried, and the other was something in how the women talked.

Guiding and Redirecting Women's Aggressive Touching

The technique was this: as Rolfe (the 17-year old telegraph delivery boy) and Liesl (the 16-year old eldest daughter) dance and flirt, Liesl aggressively grabs Rolfe, and then Rolfe takes her hands off of him, then takes her hands and steers the interaction in another way. I've always just sat and calmly smiled at women and let them touch me without reacting to it when I've had girls get aggressive, and it's always felt like I should be doing something here, but I was never sure what. This intuitively seems like the answer; she touches you, then you take her hands off you and guide her to doing something else.

Seems very powerful; she's aggressive, which is good, but you don't want her in charge of the direction of the interaction, because she'll lose interest - she needs you to lead more strongly than she is. Taking her hands and immediately leading her into something else here (in the movie, it was dancing; could be any number of other things though in life) seems a powerful response.

Women's Thoughts on "Ownership"

The other thing I noted was the women talking about "someday you'll be his," as, essentially, the ultimate objective of a young woman's life. It's easy to forget in today's volatile, highly politically-correct West, but throughout almost all of history, women have been considered to "belong" to men (e.g., the Bible, most historical national laws, etc.), and that's been something that both men and women wanted. Today, men talking about "she's mine" are assumed jealous and possessive, while women wishing to "belong to a man" are almost non-existant (and are ridiculed where they do exist), but historically this has been the norm, while today's thoughts on what romance is about are the aberrations.

I don't think it's as extreme today as you'd think, though... it's still pretty common for a man to tell his woman, "You're mine," and for her to feel a swelling of warmth and security from that. You don't really see it the other way as much... occasionally a woman will tell a man that he's hers, but it's a less common sentiment.

Anyway, not sure this has much practical application, but I can just imagine the public outcry a lead actress telling a teenage girl that "someday you'll be his" would have if the movie was released in 2012 instead of 1965.

Chase

 

[A Life Loquacious]

Actually I think you're onto something there, an 'oldskool' approach can be very powerful in some ways. I notice there's a whole load more of the 'girls are silly and cute' vibe going on in older movies, too. You only have to look at the current popularity of Burlesque events which are almost always run through with a thread of light S&M to see that today's women seem to miss that slight disciplinarian, possessive yet slightly dismissive tendency the gentlemen of yesteryear had towards them. In fact the whole Burlesque scene is quite interesting, I've yet to explore it properly (would have to drop a fair bit of cash on clothes) but from what I can see, it attracts a lot of straight women with a bit of kink, but the rather dressy nature seems to put more casual guys off getting involved despite the fairly sexually charged atmosphere, so if you can get yourself looking dapper in tweeds and a deerstalker and flavour your game with a sprinkling of the 'Victorian Gentleman' character, I should imagine Burlesque events would be fertile hunting grounds.

 

[trashKENNUT]

Chase,

The idea of taking her aggressive touch and turning it into yours and change it into something you guide makes her wanting more than the usual interest. Women are natural followers. Although somehow there's some girls who develop masculine traits, it somewhat works too.

Zac

 

[Chase]

Hey fellas,

@ LL,

Actually I think you're onto something there, an 'oldskool' approach can be very powerful in some ways. I notice there's a whole load more of the 'girls are silly and cute' vibe going on in older movies, too. You only have to look at the current popularity of Burlesque events which are almost always run through with a thread of light S&M to see that today's women seem to miss that slight disciplinarian, possessive yet slightly dismissive tendency the gentlemen of yesteryear had towards them.

Agreed. There aren't many men these days who have the appeal of the men of days gone by, and women clearly long for it. You can simply watch their reactions to the men of those movies... it's a lot easier for a girl to swoon over Clark Gable than, say, Tobey Maguire.

I haven't explored the Burlesque revival scene either, but I've heard some interesting things. It's certainly a sweeping fad States-side though... wonder how long it'll last.

@ Zac,

Chase,

The idea of taking her aggressive touch and turning it into yours and change it into something you guide makes her wanting more than the usual interest. Women are natural followers. Although somehow there's some girls who develop masculine traits, it somewhat works too.

Zac

Yes, my instinct is exactly that, that it'd take her interest and ramp it up, rather than defuse it like reacting to it (like most guys do) or let it sputter out (like doing nothing) tend to do. Can't say for sure without having tested it yet, but that's my gut on it... it'll be fun to try out.

Chase

 

[trashKENNUT]

BUMP

 

[trashKENNUT]

Relating to that term I label 'The Natural Submission'

Does not mean she like you.

- Girl friends intimidated by me that they sit in both corners of the car. And I'm in the middle.
- Girls and politics where you have to jack them off a little bit more. Apparent with physically unblessed women.