Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with handshake

Handshake etiquette especially with women

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:44:20 -0800

Over the course of my personal life I have noticed a trend of not shaking women's hands when first meeting them in social settings. What is the proper way to greet women in a first meeting in a public setting? For example if I meet a woman that is the wife or girlfriend of a friend. I will wave instead of exchanging a hand shake. This is counter to my experience with family and new women I have met in Latin America where a handshake and placing each other's faces cheek to cheek is the norm. Every time this happens I internalize it and while no one mentions that it is strange it is prevalent.

Amputee Handshake

ElmerFishpaw — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:33:14 -0800

You lost your right hand in an accident. Do you want me to use my left hand when giving you a handshake? Whats going on in your brain?

Does it make you uncomfortable that I thought ahead: "Okay this guy is missing his right hand and has to give people the somewhat awkward left-to-right handshake, I'll use my left."

Does it feel better to shake hands more like everybody else, left-to-left? Do people do this for you often? Or are you so used to left-to-right handshakes by now that youre over it and it bugs you when people make an exception for you and remind you of your deformity.

Is there a difference if this is our first-ever meeting handshake or if we've known each other for a while?

Avoiding the power handshake

grouse — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:03:55 -0800

How can I avoid getting my hands and wrists injured by a power handshake? I have a repetitive strain injury in my right wrist. Usually shaking hands is okay, but every once in a while someone will deliver a crushing handshake. And a few times in my life before my injury, someone tried to give me a "power handshake" that involved twisting my wrist around. This kind of thing was painful then but would actually be damaging now. Hopefully I'll never run into that sort of jerk again (although you never know).

First, how can I avoid or protect myself against these sorts of things without avoiding handshaking altogether?

Second, if I can't avoid them, how should I react after these incidents to calmly let the other person this is not okay?

Really, I wish we could all just bow instead.