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Well, I have been looking at a lot of hands lately, ever since I heard that guy's ring fingers are longer than their pointer fingers. Well, in a week, I have seen three women with guy fingers. One of them has a baby, and the other two are either extremely good T girls or genetic women. And, to top it off, I know a guy with so called girl hands.
Hmmmmm
Gwen
Comments
And what about another
Bit about fingers? Where the genetic males have palms of their hands longer than fingers while genetic females have them of equal length?
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Law of averages
In common with most body dimensions, I suspect the case is that on average, men have longer ring fingers. All that means is that statistically, it could be as low as 50.1% of males. It wouldn't surprise me if the study that came up with that assertion, probably several decades ago, used a fairly small sample, so the exact proportion in the population is probably unknown.
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Averages are bunk.
For example, over 99% of the human race has more than the average number of legs. My father and a few of his friends had fewer than the average.
I have fairly small hands (for a man) but the palm is much longer than the longest finger (palm = 100mm; longest finger = 80mm). Index finger = 70mm; ring finger = 73mm. Don't suppose it means anything, but I guess it's interesting in a way.
Robi
Like any other tool,
statistics are useful if you know how to use them. Unfortunately, way too many people tend to misuse them -- very often for political purposes.
(I will refrain from giving examples.)
statistics
About 94% of the statistics justifying someones preconceptions are lies.
Just like the above. There are lies, damned lies, and statistical lies. Garbage in, garbage out does not only apply to computers.
Just becasue you can find a correlation between two or more things in a group only refers to the sample group, and probably does not reflect the real world, nor is the association necessarily true.
CaroL
CaroL
Agreed.
My old math teacher, when teaching statistical analysis, liked to use this example: Toronto has more churches than Burlington. Toronto also has a larger crime rate than Burlington. Therefore there's clearly a positive correlation between the number of churches and a rising crime rate. I.E. the more churches you have the higher your crime rate will be.
Statistics can be very misleading depending on who uses them.
Differences
What it measures isn't maleness or femaleness, but levels of testosterone in the uterine environment, and it's only an average, so all one can really say is that, if one has been exposed to high levels of testosterone during gestation, those particular bones will develop differently than they would have if testosterone exposure hadn't taken place.
Men are on average taller than women, but that doesn't mean that tall people are male, or that short people are female.
Men have, on average, shorter index fingers than their ring fingers, possibly an adaptation allowing them more control when picking their noses.
Women have, on average, either index and ring fingers that are the same length, or a slightly longer index finger than their ring finger, obviously to ensure that the moral corrections applied to men through wagging one's index finger are more visible ad promptly acted-upon.
A few studies have suggested that homosexual men may tend very slightly to follow the female norm, but other studies have shown no difference.
One study has suggested that some lesbian women may tend very slightly to follow the male norm, but others have shown no difference.
One study has shown that some transsexual men may have finger length ratios approximating those of women. Others have shown no correlation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_ratio
The difference is usually very small, and easily influenced by subconscious alteration of the way one holds one's hands, so most people without access to a good set of calipers find it fairly difficult to estimate what the ratio really is.
That being the case, the whole exercise is more like a parlour game than science, and one can make of it what you will, like the configuration of the lines and wrinkles on one's palm.
Here's a PopSci site that talks about it:
http://viewzone2.com/fingersx.html
It includes exaggerated artwork and diagrams, as well as edifying letters to the editor explaining why so and so is a great artist, and this and t'other is autistic.
On my own hands, my left hand has an index finger noticeably longer than my ring finger, and I have a machinist's caliper which verifies my casual observation. My right hand has ring and index fingers that look to be exactly the same, although measuring with calipers reveals that my index finger is very slightly shorter than my ring finger. This tells me exactly nothing in real life.
Well, except that the fact that I own a precision caliper is probably very revealing.
Chiromancy, on the other hand, tells me that I tend to let my intellect rule my heart, and that I'm emotionally stable, which is fairly accurate. My phrenological profile, on the other hand, is whack. My natal chart pleases me, but I'm not sure that any random chart wouldn't be just as pleasing, as they all seem rather vague and flattering.
Cheers,
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Painfully feminine all my life.
Having said that, I topped trees when in my 20's, was an Electrician for 33 years, Sailed, and actually killed an Elk and a deer. I had a 30.06 specially outfitted to accomodate my squeamishness about things that hurt my shoulder, to include a Muzzle brake, a huge sissy pad, and a very nice scope. It was a sweet heart lady's gun. I still own my .45. All this was done to convince my wife and relatives that I really was "manly" enough. She purchased me a Red and White 93 Dodge Cummins 4x4 Pickup that was constructed to be a snow plow. When we got in to drive it off the lot, she looked at me and said, "Now maybe this will make you more masculine".
And I was constantly challenged because of my voice, and generally feminine carriage. I was often asked if I was gay, and more than once the fact that I had a wife and children kept me from being beaten up.
To heighten my sense of injustice, according to the finger thingie, I am all male. :(
Khaduuj
HAHAHA!
I too was devastated when I discovered I had 'man hands'.
I imediately went to google images and searched for female hands.
I was so relieved to see that the 'study' of women's vs men's ring fingers was a right load.
Nobody.
The *average* digit ratio for men is 0.98
or two parts in a hundred, so if your index finger is ten centimeters (~four inches) long, the difference between rugged manliness and wimpy girlyman* is a whopping two millimeters, let's say a skosh more than a sixteenth of an inch. (five sixty-fourths, if you're taking notes and have a pretty good ruler)
Cheers,
Puddin'
* To use Governor Arnold (Alois) Schwarzenegger's egalitarian turn of phrase.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
The Baby bump
Well, I have decided not to worry any more since the amputation of the long finger seems to attract hostile stares from the Medical folk. For me it would be a full half inch. :(
Still the brand new baby and mom with accompanying residual baby bump in a woman I know quite well, did it for me. Her hands are a little smaller but her finger dimensions are almost like mine. Try as I might, I can not find a man in there. :)
Gwen