Aude Picard-Wolff, a French woman mayor is refusing to follow the French tradition of cheek-kissing as a way of greeting. She hopes to replace it with a handshake. She once even came late in a meeting on purpose so as to avoid the cheek-kissing. Picard-Wolff says that she has long been troubled by the French habit of the 'bise'. Bise means kissing on the cheeks. According to social customs, when people meet, especially in the workplace, though they don’t know each other very well, they will kiss each other or at least pretend to, one, two or three times on the cheek. The problem is not only about wasting time or being unclean. It’s more because that as a woman, she feels uncomfortable. Mainly in France, men do not give the bise to other men, except in the close family, but women feel they have to give and receive it with everyone. So for Aude Picard-Wolff, in a very small way, bise indicates( 象征 ) sexual inequality. At first, her idea was a personal choice, but now it is spreading over France. Picard-Wolff has received emails of support, mainly from women who say that they too have had enough of the bise and want the option, especially at work, of a frank, friendly handshake. Over the years, in many countries, like the UK, the handshake has gradually been taken place by the French style of cheek-kissing. It would be irony( 讽刺 ) indeed if the French now started an opposite process .