feminine hip movements?

[ashlee chiffon]

hey gurls and gals~
just wondering how "girly" you move your hips when you walk when dressed. I know we all wiggle once in a while to move our skirts and heels force a certain "fem" walk, but is there any natural feeling "wiggle" or swing in your hips when dressed? Do your SO's comment or give advice?
And on those lines, any tips you have for perfecting a "fem" walk in heels? i watch the models move the runways and like that style, but the everyday swing and wrist movement about the hips our GG's have still feels a little clumsy to me after all these years. i find it's harder to do subtle movement and easier to do exaggerated ones!
I know...practice,practice,practice...!!!

[rhonda jane]

Swing your arms. Watch how the GG's swing their arms. It adds to the hip movement.

[Jennaie]

I practiced in the evening at the local high school track. I some people will tell you that you just need to put one foot in front of the other like you were walking along a painted line. I find that what works for me is getting a rhythm going that is a combination of taking small steps combined with lifting the knees just a bit higher with my steps and a very slight twisting feeling at the waist. Swinging your arms will come naturally when you do this. You really need to practice this for long distances and at different paces. Walking accross your living room simply does not get it done.

If you are wearing a hip and butt enhancer or waist cincher this will help you get the feeling.

[MarieTS]

Bobbie, one of the most natural methods to improve your gal gait is to focus on using your thighs rather than your knees & lower legs to walk.

[ashlee chiffon]

hey Marie...not sure what you mean on the thigh movement~how do you,yourself, apply this to your walk?

[Jennaie]

Bobbie, one of the most natural methods to improve your gal gait is to focus on using your thighs rather than your knees & lower legs to walk.

I agree with this, when you walk with your thighs it will cause that slight knee lift that I mentioned before.

[ashlee chiffon]

i always concentrate on my heels and my hips...the thigh concept makes sense, as does the arm swing *though i still feel a little stiff*...
great advice gals! thanks!

[Marlena Dahlstrom]

Making sure your thighs brush each other while you walk will produce a nice amount of wiggle without overdoing it.

Advice that tells you to crossover your feet is wrong: only runway models do that.

Aslo, as other have said, a GG often have a bit more arm swing (typically swinging more from the elbow than the shoulder.) It also help you rotate your wrist outward slightly. Women's arms hang a bit wider (to clear their wider hips) and do this helps mimick that. It feels awkward at first, but you'll get used it it. Also pull your shoulders back and lead with your chest rather than your chin.

[Jenny Warren]

The reason men and women walk differently is because womens hips are set at a different angle to mens. Also, women walk along a line, while men walk straddling the line.

The first thing you need to do is walk the line.
Next, look at the way women position their arms when walking.

Try watching women walk, but be subtle so as not to cause them any embarassment or uneasiness

Try this:

As you step forward with your right foot, thrust your right hip outwards, and as you step forward with your left foot, thrust your left hip outwards.

Repeat this continually until you reach your destination.

If you watch the professional models on the catwalks, you'll notice that with each step they step past the line with each foot. This works for them, but won't work for us, so don't try it. (Not in public anyway)

Hope this helps,

Jenny

[Paula Jaye]

Try this link http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

It takes you to an simulation of human gait analysis. You can play with the settings to make the walk more male or female, nervous or relaxed etc. Go have a play it certainly helped me think about how I was walking and how to change it to be more feminine.

[Jenny Warren]

Paula,

That's an excellent reference tool. It should help us all to understand what we should be striving for.

I wonder if we can download a version that we can flesh out and dress.
If we could give it our own face and figure we could try all sorts of styles of clothes without having to go to the fitting room.

Jenny

[Teresa Amina]

Great advice here. My house has a very open floorplan and I can set up a full length mirror and watch myself approach from a distance. Also have found that it's much easier to get it right in heels than flats.

[Nyx]

I have wide hips and I just walk like that naturally... But I found the hip balancing becomes more important when I try to walk faster, then my hips move an additional distance to reach farther ahead. So maybe you can actually see the movement by trying to walk very fast and reach farther with your legs, then your hips should actually balance naturally, which can give you an idea on how it should look.

From my impression, it's not really a "left and right" rotation, but more of a "left hip goes forward to the left and right hip goes forward to the right" movement.

[limp wristed Janice]

I have real problems with walking and sitting etc, I find that as I cant manage to follow GG manerisms that I always over exagerate my feminine posture and therefore I must look ridiculus.

Janice

x

[sportschick]

I'm way out of practice, but besides the great biomotion lab, if you look at the "how to crossdress" sticky (I think it's still there, otherwise google it), there's a bunch of helpful stuff on the feminine walk as I recall.

[Eric/a]

I don't know if anybody else has thought of it, but one of the greatest places to practice your walk, whether it's to get used to walking in high heels or to make your walk more feminine, is the grocery store. Most of them have hard floors - linoleum or whatever - and long aisles to pratice walking that line Jenny mentioned. They usually even HAVE lines you can follow! You won't look out of place all dressed up there, because you could be on your way to or from something for all anybody knows. You'll see lots of GGs there, so you can sort of model your walk after theirs, and sometimes even the way they stand in one spot can tell you a good bit. For instance, if they're at the register writing a check, they're usually standing with one foot turned almost 90 degrees out from the other. For some reason, if they're wearing heels, that looks even more sexy! I've heard of that being called the "T-stand" but I don't know if that's right or not. Same thing at an office, if they're looking through a drawer in a file cabinet or something.

Anyway, you can also hear your heels clicking on the floor, and the sound they make when they're being worn by somebody who REALLY can walk in them is very sexy too! Even if you're just picking out a few things, you can make it take as long as you want, for more practice, and if you walk down the frozen food aisles you can watch your reflection in the glass doors. Same thing with the mirrors in the meat section. Something that also might help if you haven't had that much experience yet, is to use a shopping cart, more for balance than anything. You can even park by the cart racks when you get to the store, and use it from the time you get out of your car. They make good "training wheels," you might say! I still like to use those, because I can stroll gracefully in my highest heels even when I'm breaking in a new pair!

[Paula Jaye]

The key, as in most things, is practice. I practiced, in bloke mode, whenever I was walking around town or down the long corridor to the coffee machine at work. The aim was to get the small steps close to the line of movement. In busy areas no one will notice. Anatomy will stop most GBs getting a complete feminine walk, but at least we can make it less masculine. If you proactice in bloke mode the you will develop a feminine walk that you can adopt when you need. Because you are used to doing it then you will be more relaxed about walking that way and so blend in more readily.

[barbie lanai]

I set up a camcoder and tried walking back & forth, to & fro in front of it.

I had been wearing and walking in heels for decades and thought I knew how. I assumed just wearing the high heel shoes naturally made me walk like a female. Made me feel like one. Bummer, the camera just told me I was kidding myself. I just looked like a guy clomping along. And try as I might, never got any better. Read everything I could & tried a lot, just no improvement into a graceful movement.

[Ellie]

Try this link http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

It takes you to an simulation of human gait analysis....

This has been a great help.

I studied the simulation for a while and it looks like the primary differences are:

Shoulders:
----------
Men: Walk with their shoulders directly over or forward of their hips.
Women: Walk with their shoulders behind the hips.
Why: I believe that this is to balance the weight of the breasts over the hips.
Advice: Walk "Chest-Out, Shoulders Back" like they teach in boot camp. I've found that wearing a bra with weighty (water/birdseed) false breasts forces me to straighten up and push my shoulders back in order to balance the extra weight

Elbows:
---------
Men: Walk with their elbows out as if the person has parens () around them.
Women: Walk with their elbows closer to their side.
Why: I think this is simply a result of pushing the shoulders back but it may also be due to women's tendency to walk with their palms rotated forward which in turn may also be from holding babys or otherwise carrying packages.


Feet:
-------
Men: Walk with one foot on either side of the line.
Women: Walk on or nearer to the line.
Why: Women's hips are set wider at the top so the pivot keeps the legs and feet closer to center line of the body.
Advice: Walk with your feet on the line (walk along a flat 2x6) or if your thighs don't allow (like me) aim for keeping the feet inside the width of your hips. Like walking on two 2x6s set next to each other, with one foot landing on each board.

Hips:
-------
Men: Hips are kept relatively still.
Women: Swing the hip with each foot.
Why: I believe this is as much an artifact of walking with the shoulders back as it is due to the feet being closer to the line.
Advice: I've found it much easier to do the hip swing with heels and even easier when I have the false breast weight to balance.

[paulaN]

great advice everyone. now lets all practice, practice, practice.

[EricaCD]

Two other items to note to complete Ellie's superb analysis:

1. On the sim (or in real life), watch how the man's shoulders sway left to right as he walks, with a straight backbone pivoting from the center of gravity, just above the groin. (Think a ship's mast in wavy water.) Besides the fact that a woman's shoulders sway much less, the backbone stays relatively vertical. The shoulder swaying does not come from the spine! Good posture is critical, but it's equally important to keep the back vertically straight relative to ground - not just to the rest of the body. If you can relax while doing this you will find that the shoulder motion is very different.

2. When wearing heels, remember to step heel to toe just like you would in drab shoes. I have a terrible tendency to place my entire foot down because I hate that little wobble for a fraction of a second while the weight is coming down. Even if you cheat a little bit, you are bringing your weight forward, jarring the step and usually rounding your shoulders.

If you have a SO who can watch and honestly critique then practice in front of her/him. Otherwise, I'd suggest videotaping yourself walking for a minute, watching and trying again. Ohhh, darn. I guess we will all have to just spend more time in our pretty high heels!

[ashlee chiffon]

thanks for the tips! I like hearing all the different tips, because some will work well and others might not with me...i've always been good on the heel walking, but would like to make it more fem then it is...and boy!!! is it hard coming down stairs in 4in or more heels gracefully!
luv 'em though!
another problem i know is the weight factor and i think buffing up might help me some also with the higher heels..
nothing like working a skirt in heels and feeling material against your thighs or thigh hi's!
*hugs*
bobby

[Jenny Warren]

and boy!!! is it hard coming down stairs in 4in or more heels gracefully!

Try coming downstairs with your feet turned at about 45 degrees to the stair edge. (Both feet facing the same direction, of course)

This allows a more feminine bend of the knee when viewed from the front, and also minimises the chance of going 'head over heels' literally.

Jenny

[ashlee chiffon]

thanks for that, but i already learned that one the hard way!
another thought...always pull your long gown up in back...as well as the front!!!

[Teresa Amina]

women's tendency to walk with their palms rotated forward

Saw a nice example the other day. Young woman with her SO going out of the push door at work, she in the lead, he following carrying their purchases. Elbow in, palm out to push the bar of the door. Don't think it has anything to do with carrying something, unless it's an Evolutionary thing. How about, "I'm not messing my nails up on this nasty door"?