Lentune Probus Ladies met today and enjoyed an interesting and well-illustrated talk about body language, by Philip St Lawrence. 

Photos of the Māori haka dance, Elon Musk, Christine Keeler, Adolf Hitler and Martin Luther King showed the audience how easy it is to assess a person by their body language. Putin with his bare chest, Kennedy and Nixon in a debate where Nixon sweated and had a five o’clock shadow, Thatcher and Reagan smiling broadly at each other and Trump’s famous mugshot were followed by a series of pictures that showed how the choice of clothing revealed the inner person; Kenneth Clarke’s Hush Puppies, Zelensky in his combat gear, and the wearing of contrasting colours. 

The significance of the crossing of legs was illustrated by Michael Parkinson looking interested and friendly compared to the Duke of York in his interview with Emily Maitlis. 

Handshakes are another give-away. Men show dominance if they hold out their hand with palm facing downwards and can add to this by touching an elbow with their left hand at the same time. A straight arm signals reluctance, shown by Michelle Obama and Berlusconi. 

Other signals include chewing spectacles, touching an ear, crossing arms, the “cowboy” pose, rubbing hands together, nodding and biting fingernails, plus fiddling with cufflinks like the King. 

During the Cuba crisis Kennedy was shown repeatedly banging his hand on his leg to show his anger. Finally, we saw Obama’s purposeful walk and Putin not swinging his right arm both of which show who is in charge 

A really fascinating and enlightening talk once again from Philip St Lawrence. 

Following the talk, the ladies enjoyed a good lunch, possibly with a discussion of what their body language was revealing!