Harris Became "Alpha Male" With Handshake

WASHINGTON - Sept. 11, 2024 - PRLog -- POLITICO said that Kamala Harris behaved as an "alpha female" in her debate with Donald Trump: Harris' Alpha Female Debate: (https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2024/09/11/harris-alpha-female-debate-00178598)

But although some have tried to redefine the terms "alpha male" and "alpha female" to have a different meaning when applied to humans, those two terms arose to describe attributes in the animal kingdom.

As Jane Goodall explained (https://news.janegoodall.org/2018/07/10/top-bottom-chimpanzee-social-hierarchy-amazing/), the "alpha male" is "the highest-ranking chimpanzee in a group," a position usually obtained by "aggression and brute strength."

Goodall also explained that: "Females also have a hierarchy within chimpanzee groups, led by the alpha female (though overall, an alpha male will almost always outrank an alpha female).

So since the one who wins a battle is usually termed the "alpha male," it seems that in terms of this debate, that title better describes Harris - although perhaps "alpha androgynous" would be more accurate - and it all stated with her aggressive more-typical-male move to initiate handshaking.

Even in India they saw it the same way: INDIA TIMES - The Handshake That Stole the Show: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's Pre-debate Moment Is Going Viral (https://www.indiatimes.com/news/world/the-handshake-that-...):

A further argument that Harris became the "alpha male" (or "alpha androgynous") of the debate in that shaking hands, and especially initiating the offer to shake hands, has traditionally been seen as a masculine rather than a female behavior.

Before about the 1980s, women usually didn't initiate handshakes with men.

Moreover, if a man did extend his hand for a handshake with a woman, she was often expected to remain seated while accepting the hand he held out.

Donald Trump, like the outdated joke above, is old, and therefore probably formed many of his perceptions and expectations about women well before 1980; an observation which may help explain many of his controversial remarks about females, and the many claims - one successfully adjudicated - about his alleged inappropriate sexual behaviors with women.

Thus he was almost certainly surprised and taken aback when Harris unexpectedly strode up to him, arguably and uninvitedly invading "his personal space," and stuck out her right hand in a way he could not overlook or avoid, suggests the public interest law professor known for more than 100 legal wins fighting discrimination against women, and as the "Father of Potty Parity."

Trump's deeply ingrained ideas and expectations about the different roles which should be played by women as compared with men, including something as simple as shaking hands, may - as it apparently did during the debate - affect many of his actions in the future; whether as president, or as a man defeated in the race by a women, and a Black woman at that.