'Victor/Victoria': Gender-Based Nonverbal Cues

The delightful 1982 film Victor/Victoria presents a veritable cornucopia of characters that include males and females, both heterosexual and homosexual, as well as transgendered individuals. Among this diverse array of characters, one can plainly see a wide variety of either masculine or feminine nonverbal cues in the form of gestures, facial expressions, body movements, eye contact and use of space and/or touch. What follows are ten examples of either masculine or feminine nonverbal cues that are exhibited throughout the film:

1. In the opening scene, Richard, who is Toddy’s young lover, exhibits a calm, relaxed facial expression. The film has already established a conflicted homosexual relationship between Richard and his older lover Toddy but the gentleness of his expression as he gets dressed emphasizes the more feminine nature of the character despite the two lovers having a bit of a quarrel at the outset.

2. In the following scene, Toddy's dainty stroll through the falling snow as he enters a nearby lounge gives his body an effeminate air as opposed to the longer and more swooping stride of a more masculine individual.

3. The next scene features Victoria's singing and it is eminently feminine in its quality. High and airy. The nature of her vocal performance is also highly emotive and imparts on her character a showy, feminine nature.

4. Toward the latter part of that scene, Victoria is arguing with some talent manager of the lounge. The manager's vocal inflection is highly masculine in its forcefulness, bluntness and directness.

5. Shortly after, a portly man is seen through a window of a restaurant dining on a creamy pastry. He takes very masculine (i.e., large and voluminous) bites as he chows down on the pastry. It is a grotesque sight and transmits an almost carnal, voracious interest in the pastry at hand.

6. As Victoria watches the portly man grotesquely devour his creamy pastry through the window of a restaurant, the look on her face is one of intense desperation and is characteristically feminine in its extreme emotiveness of longing.

7. Later on, Victoria returns to her apartment and is confronted by her landlord. The landlord's gestures as she picks up the fainted Victoria is rough, exertive and very masculine. This physicality is also present when the landlord blocks Victoria from leaving and then grabs Victoria's belongings to kick her out, all after an attempted sexual assault.

8. In the scene that follows, Toddy is in a lounge singing. His gestures, particularly in his hands, are feminine in the flitting way he moves them back and forth to punctuate the lines of his song.

9. A scene or two later, Victoria and Toddy, having an encounter at a restaurant and plotting theft, trade jabs with an annoyed waiter. The waiter's dry and dim demeanor, seen in his stolid body movement and complete lack of facial emotiveness or animated gesturing, conveys a stoic and masculine sensibility.

10. After Victoria and Toddy escape from some resulting commotion at the restaurant, they go to Toddy’s spacious but rinky-dink apartment. After some time getting to know each other better, Toddy warmly invites Victoria to join him in his bed for the night. As Toddy is a homosexual and does not have any sexual interest in Victoria, this space-based move can be seen in a feminine light as inviting and conveying a desire for warmth and closeness rather than sexual conquest.

There is absolutely no doubt that these cues were deliberate because they emphasized character traits that are integral to the story and the ultimate theme of the film. The cues were all meant to be seen as extensions of the senders’ characters and there was virtually no discrepancy in how they were interpreted by the receivers. In conclusion, the entertaining 1982 film Victor/Victoria is littered with numerous and highly effective masculine and feminine nonverbal cues from a variety of characters.