Sex-Linked Anatomical Influences On Locomotion

or, Why Men And Women Walk Different

That men and women walk differently has been the subject of much amusement in popular culture. But, from watching how men and women interact on the streets in cities, it's also apparent that something as simple as walking is likely part of the mating ritual, whether by sending signals in consciously or unconsciously displaying ourselves, or in appreciating the assets on display. As such, it's fair to assume that there are large amounts of peer pressure and social conformity at work.

Anyone who's read my first posted non-fiction story, the one of my first public outing "dressed," will remember the comedy I encountered in my own body, suddenly unable to walk on the sidewalk in heels, despite the fact that I was able to spend hours in my own home moving easily around. My "muscle memory" kicked in, sending me lurching around like a broken robot. It was kind of a wake-up call that got me to thinking about the differences in how men and women walk.

This is not a learned essay on the sociology, anthropology or psychology of any of that. Sorry.

Men who write transgender fiction, and seek to explain the differences, often fixate on breast size and balance, as if that explained everything. I don't think it does.

As a crossdresser, who has aspirations of being able to sneak around in public from time to time ("passing" seems an over-ambitious label), I've been giving thought both to the nature of movement, and to muscular development.

There's some overlap between men's and women's body proportions. A woman with a long torso and narrow hips, and a man with narrow shoulders are not unheard of, although both outside the "ideals" of beauty that we set for the sexes in our culture.

Women with small breasts do not walk any more "masculine" than other women in general. Men with gynecomastia do not walk any more "feminine" than other men. In fact, in both cases, stereotypical behavior may be enhanced.

Trained dancers, whether ballet or modern dance, move gracefully and fluidly, even when they're off the stage, with much less difference between men and women than nondancers display.

So, what is at work here? Why do the "feminine walk" and the "masculine walk" exist, and what do I feel are the major influences at work in creating these? More importantly, how could this help anyone in their efforts at crossdressing in public?

Speaking of robots (I did mention it briefly up top), as anyone can testify who has seen early efforts at creating humanoid robots that walk, making natural-looking locomotion must be a very difficult technical problem to solve. It's certainly confounded many teams of engineers who have tried. In the last year or so, I've seen one or two results that looked a lot better, so progress is being made, but I still don't think they're there yet.

So, what is it that we humans use to walk around? Our legs, right? We have joints at our knees, ankles, and hips, right? That's how we walk? No. That's only part of it. There's your foot, with hinged toes, especially the ball of your foot, but with additional minor flexibility. And then, there's your pelvic girdle. In effect, I believe the pelvis has the musculature and flexibility to act like two additional joints for each leg. Your pelvis can be pivoted around the axis of your spine, additionally extending each hip forward and back. In addition to that, it can rock side to side at the same time in an up-and-down fashion, extending the effective length of each leg alternately. Your hip is a ball joint for a reason, so it can work in conjunction with your pelvis being in relative motion at the same time.

I think dancers move with less sexual differentiation because they've been trained to develop and use all their muscles and joints. The rest of us, not so much.

Even including women with large breasts, it's men who tend to have more total upper-body mass than women, in relation to total body mass. With broader shoulders and much heavier arms, most men help maintain their balance by swinging their shoulders and/or arms when they walk, using the upper part of their spines as they do. To some extent, this comes naturally, as we all use the muscles we find easiest to use. We're essentially lazy, and like to do things that are easy. But, it also makes some sense, because if you have to carry around a lot of muscle mass, you might as well use some of that strength and mass to balance, or you'll fatigue something else.

Women have less upper body mass, especially in musculature, so this option is not available to them. To maintain balance, they have to depend more on their largest muscle groups, the ones about their hips and thighs. Where breasts do come into play in this is a desire to prevent bouncing, which is both uncomfortable, and socially unacceptable. Displaying excessively bouncing breasts in public is generally considered ungenteel. The woman in question would at least get made fun of by her peers. So, the refined, genteel woman develops a walk that allows her to hold her upper body relatively still. She does this by using the motion and flexibility available in the pelvic girdle more so than a man would.

There's one other ratio that comes into play here. Foot size to pelvic width. Men have longer feet, on average, than a woman of the same height. They also have narrower pelvises. If we all need a certain amount of space in our hinged walking apparatus between our joints to be able to walk smoothly, it's clear that men have an advantage in their feet over women. In addition, stereotypical women's footware, the high-heeled pump, further shortens that portion of the limb (the effective ankle-to-toe length), and limits the available range of motion of not only the ball of the foot, but the ankle as well. This puts more of a burden on the pelvic girdle to take up the slack and smooth out the motion.

It's been clear to me for some time that the "padding" on a fit young woman's derriere is not predominantly fat. It's muscle. Yes, there may be a subcutaneous layer of fat there, but it's not the major factor in providing the basic shape that we women's-derriere-watchers enjoy! Or, that we crossdressers don't want to be immediately spotted as lacking.

Between wanting to be able to walk around without being immediately spotted as male due to my locomotion, and wanting to add a bit of muscle to my gluteus maximus and environs, I've been looking for a training method to help. After the last few days, I think I'm onto something.

The hardest part of this has been "finding" the muscles to work on. Transferring part of the responsibility for locomotion from one set of muscles and joints to another is not as simple as it sounds. Especially, when where you want to transfer them to hasn't been used in that way before! If you're going to try to follow what I'm doing and duplicate it yourself, let me apologize in advance if you feel frustrated in the effort. It took me a while. Stick with it, trying every few days for a few weeks until you start feeling the muscles.

For me, my exercise equipment is an urban sidewalk that goes up a 5+% grade for almost half a mile, the last couple hundred yards of which are steeper. Maybe you have access to a treadmill. The pitch of the hill requires more effort to walk up, so you're more likely to be able to feel and isolate the muscles involved, as well as give them more exercise.

The goal is to hold your head and upper body completely steady, without bouncing, while your legs and hips do all the work. In particular, you want to feel the pull of the muscles down your lower back and buttocks, as you put them into play. I find it easiest to hold my hands clenched over my stomach, with my elbows tight at my sides. It took a while to find it, but once I did, I could feel the fatigue in those muscles almost immediately. Once you have that, you're all set. Just keep annoying the tired muscles! If you want to grow them, give them a day or two off after each workout. You want to encourage them to build up, not tear them down.

Oh, and try not to use the muscles in your feet and ankles as much as you would normally. Let your upper legs pull you through. It's amazing how quickly those "new" muscles will tire at first.

A word of warning. Go easy on this, especially if you have any history of back or disk troubles. Don't try increasing your range of motion too quickly, and do try to distinguish between healthy muscle fatigue and joint pains or muscle spasms. Don't overdo anything and try not to injure yourself. If you've done any "core-strengthening" exercises in the past for a weak or injured back, and you're still aware of those muscles, by all means exercise them at the same time as you work on your walk. Those muscles in front counteract and balance the muscles in back, and strengthening them together is probably good in general, not just for those of us who want to walk in a more gender-neutral way. This isn't meant to be physical therapy advice, and if you have a physician, trainer or physical therapist, please consult them before trying anything.

If anyone has had success working on either their walk or their derriere's natural appearance, and has any recommendations, please leave them as public comments so everyone can benefit from them! For the purpose of this posting, could we please omit any mention of padded panties and/or female hormones? I'm not opposed to either for anyone who's interested, but that's not what this posting is about.