Haptics

Although this area of body language was briefly covered in class, I really enjoyed learning about the significance of touch in communication. The humorous allegory that Professor Fassett shared in class about how students touched her pregnant belly is a great example of this. Normally, touching another person comes with consent. It seems like in Fasset's case, she was not accustomed to people touching her without asking. Conversely, the students didn't even second-guess the touching of a professor on school grounds. In their eyes, there was no trespassing of comfort zones, since they may have grown up with different ideas of what is proper touching and what is off-limits.

Last semester, I took an Intercultural Communication class with Priya Raman. There was a whole section of class dedicated to the study of Haptics. It was interesting to see the variety in what is considered socially acceptable touching and what was culturally frowned upon. For example, in some Middle Eastern countries, it is not socially acceptable for a woman to touch a man that is not her husband. Compare that to the United States, where in my experience, girls would come up and hug/kiss boys they liked in elementary and middle school.What is considered "OK" depends on who you are asking and what context they find themselves in. Yet another example would include the distinction between playful touching in a friendly environment as opposed to in the office. "Playfully" touching a member of the opposite sex could be considered sexual harassment and cost you your job.