Touch

[supergee]

Suzette Haden Elgin (olev ha-sholem) said that many people are touch-dominant and relate to the world by making contact with it. My immediate reaction was that it would not be fun to work for such a person, especially if one is of a sex the boss is attracted to.

I have spent many years in a 12-step program in which hugging is mandatory. I didn’t like it at first, but thanks to much Remedial Hugging, I now do it competently.

Joe Biden appears to be touch-dominant. It is of course an order of magnitude different from our president’s pussy grabbing, but the culture is finally beginning to take personal space more seriously, even when the person violating it is a high-status white male who means well.

This strikes me as a sign that while Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders are great people who should keep doing what they’re doing indefinitely, I hope the Democratic presidential nominee is someone younger.

Comments

[supergee]

I was treating touch dominance as one of the ways in which older candidates will have trouble dealing with changes.

[mrissa]

Women on average live longer and are healthier than men, and yet you have chosen to treat a female candidate who is nearly a full decade younger than two male candidates as the same age, instead of grouping Sen. Warren with Sen. Klobuchar, who is nearly as close to her in age as Biden and Sanders, but in the opposite direction. What bins you used to group candidate ages was a choice you made, not an inevitable fact of nature.

You have also grouped a candidate who--again, unless you have information I don't--does not have a history of these issues with two who do, on the basis of You Felt Like It.

We are going to get enough of this sloppy sexist bullshit from the media without having to take it from our friends. Do better, Arthur. Check yourself, and do much, much better.