Walk Like A Man. Or Not.

In addition to finger length and the direction in which your fingerprint whorl spins, scientists are theorizing that a person's body shape and gait can be indicators of sexual orientation. Researchers at NYU and Texas A&M measured the bodies of eight male and eight female subjects, half of whom were gay. The subjects then walked and ran on treadmills as a computer measured hip and shoulder movements. From the study:

Based on these measurements, the researchers determined that the gay subjects tended to have more gender-incongruent body types than their straight counterparts (hourglass figures for men, tubular bodies for women) and body motions (hip-swaying for men, shoulder-swaggering for women) than their straight counterparts.

In addition, 112 undergraduate observers were shown videos of the backsides of the volunteers as they walked at various speeds on the treadmill. The observers were able to determine the volunteers' sexual orientation with an overall rate of accuracy that exceeded chance, even though they could not see the volunteers' faces or the details of their clothing. Interestingly, the casual observers were much more accurate in judging the orientation of males than females; they correctly categorized the sexual orientation of men with more than 60 percent accuracy, but their categorization of women did not exceeded chance.

The findings build on recent research that shows that casual observers can often correctly identify sexual orientation with very limited information. A 1999 Harvard study, for example, found that just by looking at the photographs of seated strangers, college undergraduates were able to judge sexual orientation accurately 55 percent of the time.

What a triumph for science! Some gay men have swishy walks. Next they'll prove that gay men prefer sex with men.