Old-fashioned economists used to think that this sort of thing was what kept the Invisible Hand waggling lucratively away.

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The stage on which we women are instructed to play, fingers waggling in our faces, is often so constricting it's a wonder we can move at all.

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Dr Neave, however, believes this may simply result from 80% of men being right footed, and so tending to place more weight on their left foot in order to demonstrate leg-waggling prowess with the right one.

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