Shrug Explained

A shrug is a gesture or posture performed by raising both shoulders. In certain countries, it is a representation of an individual either being indifferent about something or not knowing an answer to a question.[1]

Shrugging

The shoulder-raising action may be accompanied by rotating the palms upwards, pulling closed lips downwards, raising the eyebrows or tilting the head to one side.[2] A shrug is an emblem, meaning that it integrates the vocabulary of only certain cultures and may be used in place of words.[3] In many countries, such as the United States, Sweden and Morocco, a shrug represents hesitation or lack of knowledge; however, in other countries, such as Japan and China, shrugging is uncommon and is not used to show hesitation. People from the Philippines, Iran and Iraq may interpret a shrug as a somewhat impolite sign of confidence.[4]

Gallic shrug

The Gallic shrug, "generally a nuanced gesture with myriad meanings",[5] is performed by sticking out your lower lip, raising your eyebrows and shoulders simultaneously,[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] and voicing a nonchalant bof.[11]

Emoji

The shrug gesture is a Unicode emoji included as .[12] The shrug emoticon, better known as the shruggie, made from Unicode characters, is also typed as, where "ツ" is the character tsu from Japanese katakana.[13]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Shrug | Define Shrug at Dictionary.com . Dictionary.reference.com . 2011-12-20.
  2. Debras . Camille . The shrug: Forms and meanings of a compound enactment . Gesture . 29 June 2017 . 16 . 1 . 1–34 . 10.1075/gest.16.1.01deb . 22 December 2022 . en . 1568-1475.
  3. Book: Paul Ekman. Ekman . Paul . Telling Lies . 2009 . 9780393081749. 101. W. W. Norton.
  4. Book: Jokinen, Kristiina . Allwood . Jens . Toru . Ishida . Culture and Computing: Computing and Communication for Crosscultural Interaction . Hesitation in Intercultural Communication: Some Observations and Analyses on Interpreting Shoulder Shrugging . Springer-Verlag . Berlin, Heidelberg . 2010 . 978-3-642-17183-3 . 0302-9743 . 10.1007/978-3-642-17184-0_5 . 6259 . 55-70.
  5. News: Greenspan . Dorie . Long before the toast craze in the U.S., the French were making tartines . 31 March 2023 . Washington Post . 20 January 2017.
  6. News: Allen . Peter . To offend the French, fondle a slice of cheese . 31 March 2023 . . 4 January 2007.
  7. Web site: French Facial Expressions . The Good Life France . 31 March 2023 . 14 August 2015.
  8. News: Rhodes . Peter . Peter Rhodes on a cheesy lesson, the Gallic shrug and waiting for the male of the species to improve . 31 March 2023 . . October 13, 2021 . en.
  9. News: Nehring . Cristina . May 16, 2011 . Letter From Paris: A Gallic Shrug for DSK . en-us . nymag.com Intelligencer . Vox Media, LLC . 31 March 2023.
  10. Web site: January 4, 2019 . How the French Speak With Their Hands . 31 March 2023 . . en.
  11. Web site: The Language . Domaines & Terroirs . 31 March 2023.
  12. Web site: Shrug Emoji . . 2016-01-17.
  13. Web site: Shrug Emoticon . Textpopo . 2021-06-19.

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