Observing that many of the women in an acting class were having more difficulty than the men with some physical exercises requiring strong use of the arms (labeled nonassertive arm movement behavior), a teacher educator researched the psychological and physiological reasons behind this behavior pattern. The search revealed numerous studies showing that women are far less physically aggressive or assertive than men, and concluding that this is a "sex appropriate" behavior actually taught to children through reward and punishment, rather than an inherent sex trait. Although there was a dearth of relevant research comparing the strength of men and women, the teacher educator found that the differences in strength are greater within either sex than they are between the sexes. The teacher educator concluded that women can substantially increase the strength of their arms through weightlifting, but also that it is vitally important for acting instructors to be aware of women's background of conditioned passiveness and of their experiences and thoughts in order to avoid subscribing to the stereotypical view of women as weak and passive and to offer their female acting students the best instruction possible. (HTH)