The Posture Mandala

The mandala above illustrates four atavistic youth trends and their relationship to posture:

Friendly Weakness - Hippie	Cowed
Hostile Weakness - Punk	Hunched
Friendly Strength - Rave	Erect
Hostile Strength - 'Storm'	Towering

The first two stances have been celebrated in the past with humour - for example John Lydon acting the goat on stage with his hunched vacant lear, a conveniant extension of childhood illness. Years later Kurt Cobain melancholically jokes, 'I have very bad posture...' in Pennyroyal Tea.

Ravers will often camp their alert posture with the positive smile, raised eyebrow and exagerrated tilt of the head. The hands on the hips stance also turns up, especially among subjects about to take the lead and develop bossy characteristics. Think of the jolly imperialism of Tiesto's Traffic or Culture Beat's jittery track, Mr Vain.

At the moment (2006), the solid folded arms and dominating grin has still to emerge on mass, however, hostile strength pop icons come and go such as Tracy Beaker. Fake imitations also crop up like Anne Robinson.
Meanwhile in the States hostile strengths abound in the media such as Judge Judy and so on. As the weak grovelling guests say on her shows, 'Um, that's right Ma'am...', 'Er why, yes Ma'am...' Hell, they might as well roll over on the floor and expose their bellies.
I have to say I much prefer Hammy Hamster friendly strengths, like Oprah Winfrey. Oprah can kick ass if she wants to, but most the time she feels at home in the solid, supportive mode.

I like referring to women and girls when discussing hostile strength because there's just so many numpties out there who seem to think that it equates with machismo or how much muscle someone has.

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