Whether adopted by a man or a woman, and from whatever side of the political spectrum, the ‘Tory Power Stance’, as it has been dubbed, is a pose designed to project masculine power and authority. Various hypotheses have been offered as to the origin of the pose and what it might signify. In this paper I offer a psychoanalytic and developmental perspective that includes some personal reflections on a memory of my childhood. The paper is written in a deliberately non-academic format, maintaining the style of the original conference presentation.