Body language expert and author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma Patti Wood explained that Shake appeared to “position himself for battle” during his explosive appearance on the reunion. When hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey questioned why he appeared on the show, Shake seemed to have a defense ready.
Wood notices that Shake sat “out and forward on the couch with his upper leg and knee outward.” Per her, this is a common “alpha male position,” that signifies that he was preparing for a fight. Here’s how she breaks it all down.
ICYMI, a lot of the criticism of Shake has to do with his treatment of Deepti Vempati, his ex-fiancée. During the show, he regularly talked about how he wasn’t sexually attracted to her — though he rarely opened up to her with such candor. During the reunion, he defended himself by saying, “We all have our physical preferences.”
And although that might not sound too controversial, his body language added an extra layer of aggression to the statement. When he said that, he flung his hand out. Per Wood, “That forward hand motion is aggressive. It’s a call. It’s a plea that ‘this is true for everybody.’”
Though Shake may have wanted his castmates to agree with him, their body language made it clear that he was on his own. While he spoke about love being “blurry” instead of blind, Deepti appeared to have a “micro-facial cue of rage,” per Wood. “She leaned back, pushed her head back, and closed her eyes,” Wood explains. “As if to say, this was so exasperating.”
