Deportment - a lost art?

Jings I've a straight jacket here, just waiting for you to wear!

p.s. That has nothing to do with sitting up straight neither.

Ana

Umm, because if you walked with your head looking down you only see your feet but if you walk looking ahead you have a wider vision so you would see the shilling first.

Do you drive your car only looking at the bonnet or the road ahead ?

If I'm wrong it just goes to show what a thick kid I was.

The only time I had anything like good posture was when I was in the Army. Drill is wonderful for deportment and excellent exercise. I tried recently to stand to attention in the middle of my kitchen (only because I caught a glimpse of a hunched up old person reflected in the glass door of my cooker and couldn't believe it was me!). Head up, back straight, stomach in, shoulders back! God, did it hurt and I didn't get anywhere near the original! And you could get permanently stuck at 'eyes right' and 'eyes left' (listening to the bones crunching in your neck!) - downright dangerous! I think years of sitting in front of a computer did for me (coupled with childbirth, becoming slightly overweight and lazy)!

My mum used to say, to my sister and I, the following rhyme:

Perfect posture, perfect posture
Do not slump, do not slump.
You will grow up handsome, you will grow up handsome.
Mind that hump, mind that hump.

I don't have a hump or a sticky out tummy. Just luck I think.

My pal and I just started pilates. I was told my back didn't have the proper 'S' curve as my bum sticks out, Well at least I don't walk like a sack of spuds!

My hump disappeared when I lost weight. It turned out to be entirely composed of fat! I always excused it as a postural thing. Luckily, I don't have osteoporosis. Sadly, I do look rather like Quasimodo and losing weight has made that worse but I suppose there are worse things...there must be...surely?

At my school 'scholarship girl,' we had deportment lessons, not only that be had elocution too ,must get rid of our regional accents!

it could be the fault of our lovely squashy sofas and armchairs. The French only have dining chairs as a general rule and I have been brought up short since living here and am now much more aware of how I sit and walk.

Having had a new hip I now have equal length legs (never knew I didn't ) and that has made a difference, plus the lack of pain and so I seem to have grown inches and no longer think so much about walking tall.

At my girls grammar school in the 1960s at the end of each term, in preparation for our termly reports, we had to walk round the gym with a book on our heads and were wheedled out (not sure how to spell that) one at a time. I was always wheedled out fairly soon. I do try to stand up straight but tend to droop. Melvyn Bragg was in the Daily Telegraph recently, his wife is trying to improve him in various ways including posture. His new mantra when walking is 'lead with the nipples'. I've tried it, it really does improve the posture!

When I was at school there were awards for deportment. My Zumba teacher is always telling us about our inner core and if you tighten the abdominal muscles it helps you walk upright. It works, remembering is the problem!

X

When standing, imagine a line that runs from your shoulder, then to your hip bone, and then to your ankle. Keep that line as straight/vertical as you can.

I wonder why the boys never had deportment lessons? Why only the girls?

What's good enough for Melvyn is good enough for me....lead with the nipples, eh?

Shades of Peggy Mount...

I must confess to a secret tv habit - watching a show called Dinner Date. But its making me a very Grumpy Old Woman because I'm so appalled by some of the participants' table manners. Slumped posture with elbows and forearms on the table, knives and forks sticking up in the air, licking their knives which they hold like a pencil, gulping their wine whilst chewing. Whatever has happened? i attended an ordinary grammar school in the 60s but deportment and good table manners were all part of the standard we had to adhere to. Those who didnt got 'lines'. Don't these things matter anymore?

Slumped posture with elbows and forearms on the table
Oh Lordy, lordy, just realised I am doing that as I read your post specki
(not licking a knife or chewing, but taking a swig of too)

We had elocution lessons at school too, winifred

Elocution lessons, posture marks and terrible careers advice.

and lines
Happy days (not)

Oh dear, my grammar school fell terribly short in the elocution and deportment lessons department, although it had a very good academic record!

Ok Jalima but at least you are in the privacy of your own home and not appearing in a tv show!

Hope my webcam is not on

Re my post about 'Nipples leading' - it is GYLES BRANDRETH not Melvyn Bragg that his wife is trying to improve. Sorry, Melvyn.

I expect Melvyn just thinks lofty.

problem with nipples leading - with age they tend to look South so then one would end up looking at the ground again!