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A curtsy (also spelled curtsey or incorrectly as courtsey) is a traditional gendered gesture of greeting, in which a girl or woman bends her knees while bowing her head. In Western culture it is the feminine equivalent of bowing by males.
Dec 5, 2011 · By the time we reach the late 20th century, however, the now reigning Miss Manners by Judith Martin, issues a decree that Americans should never curtsy, especially to royalty, because “the curtsy is the traditional gesture of an inferior to a superior.”.
Aug 26, 2007 · Commoners knelt to their overlords, and of course everyone knelt before the King or Queen. But the late 16th and 17th centuries saw a gradual substitution of a mere bow or curtsey for kneeling, and kneeling was increasingly reserved in Protestant circles for God alone.
- A Lady's curtsey is a relic of those barbarous days when woman was expected to bend the knee on being ushered into the presence of men of rank and...
- Very interesting, thanks. But it should also be noted that in the presence of a King, in the court of King James, a man would have had to bow. A m...
- I suspect it has to do with the dress. Even with just a short bow...a woman's dress would hit the floor. Thus, it seems a natural movement to pick...
- Interesting...but, also NOT the answer. The question that is being asked was clarified in billythebrit's follow-up post: "No, my question is why...
- Bowing is a sign of submission - one is presenting one's neck to a person who probably has a sword. One is demonstrating that the other is superior...
Jul 7, 2016 · Children learning how to curtsy from an 1890 German Print. Then it happened that teachers of social decorum began to consider how to improve the girls’ social bearing, and in looking over the field they decided that a touch of quaintness and old fashioned forms would be both charming and suitable.
Aug 26, 2024 · The old-fashioned curtsy, a word that derives from “courtesy”, dates to the Middle Ages and the association of the curtsy with young ladies, rather than gentlemen, can be traced back to the 17th century.
A young girl presenting flowers to Queen Elizabeth II outside Brisbane City Hall in March, 1954. Overview. According to Desmond Morris, the motions involved in the curtsy and the bow were similar until the 17th century, and the sex differentiation between the actions developed afterwards.
Arch recalled how the rector’s wife in his local village decreed that the labourers should sit separately from their wives during divine service in the local church. These women were also made to curtsey histrionically, and in Arch’s words:
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