Non-verbal Communication

Our assignment this week was to watch a television program with the sound turned down so that we could pay attention to the non-verbal communication to determine the relationship between the characters. Then, we needed to watch the show again with the sound turned up to see if we were right. The show that I watched is called 2 Broke Girls and I have never seen it before. The two main characters were a blond and a brunette. The blond did most of her communicating verbally, which I could not hear, and the brunette did a lot of non-verbal communication. It was clear that the characters knew each other well, and it seemed to me that the blond was more in charge. I based this on the fact that she approached a third character while the brunette stood back, she sat down first in an unfamiliar setting and then the brunette sat down, she zipped up the front of the brunette's uniform when her cleavage was clearly bothering an older character, and she appeared to be coordinating a meeting between two people while the brunette was playing around. When I watched the show with the volume up I realized that the brunette was actually the stronger of the two characters, and that her constant vocalizations and physical movements were effects to make her character seem more flighty. I realize that I made these assumptions based on the fact that those who are "in charge" in my world usually do more of the talking and coordinating of activities. If I had been watching a muted show that I was familiar with l I would have been more focused on the story because I would already know the relationship between the characters, and wouldn't had to rely on non-verbal communication to help me establish what was happening.