Communicative Facial Expressions

[Pamplemousse]

So I'm not really sure where to start off here, so I'm going to dive right into it. I'm known for having a very animated face. I twist and turn my facial muscles around and can make a whole slew of faces. Now yes, anyone can do this. But a lot of times it's like I prefer to use them to "communicate" to people instead of using words. I have a hard time talking to people sometimes, but have learned what my face does gives a lot away, so I purposefully use this to my advantage.

Mainly, I make a lot of funny faces. I can twitch my eyes, raise eyebrows really high, etc. etc. I'm somewhat of a goof (ok....a big goof) so I can make people laugh almost instantaneously with my face. Lots of people comment on my facial expressions and how they are so lively.

Anyone else this way? I mean I almost wonder if I was better at talking to people if I wouldn't have such a wide array of expressions. Nobody else that I know personally is like this. Am I weird? (Well, I know I am! ) Maybe I just adapted to what I have to work with...

[Sandy4957]

Heh heh... I had a three-week trial a while back, and one of the jurors, a young woman, had that sort of face. She also rocketed around constantly in her chair. She was always moving, either shaking her leg or fidgeting or rocking.

She was pretty and therefore sort of "watchable," and at one point there was some testimony that had to make people on the jury wonder what some of the witnesses (women) must have seen in one of the defendants, 'cause he seemed to have an inordinately large number of attractive women who were dating him.

Anyway, when that testimony came, this young, very expressive woman's eyebrows knitted together, her eyes opened WIDE, and she visibly swiveled in her chair to look first at the attractive female witness describing her relationship with the defendant, and then at the defendant. I darned near laughed out loud. Her thoughts could not have been more obvious if she'd spoken them out loud!

Ya think maybe she had a touch of ADHD???!!!

[finallyfound10]

A friend of mine used to comment frequently that I had the best facial expressions. He's the only one though so I don't think that I truly have anything special.

[peripatetic]

i'm very animated...my facial expressions can give away my thoughts near immediately....which is not always a good thing.

[nanners]

I think I have this "gift" too. Friends ask me to tell a funny or dramatic story instead of them, as I apparently act out a better telling with my face. I can do accents fairly well too, unless asked to. Can't do a lot of things when put on the spot.

I have had to really train myself to hold back on my facial expressions too. It's been very hard to master a "neutral" look! But you can't actually let your boss know what you really think of them, right? Or you mother in law, etc....

(disclaimer: I am not a jerk, even though it kind of sounds like it in the above statement)

[Zevispaz]

Yeah, I use my face expressions to communicate what words can't. I've done it since I was a kid, that I don't even know I'm doing it. But I guess I don't hide my thoughts well... at all.

[Pamplemousse]

Originally Posted by Sandy4957

Heh heh... I had a three-week trial a while back, and one of the jurors, a young woman, had that sort of face. She also rocketed around constantly in her chair. She was always moving, either shaking her leg or fidgeting or rocking. Anyway, when that testimony came, this young, very expressive woman's eyebrows knitted together, her eyes opened WIDE, and she visibly swiveled in her chair to look first at the attractive female witness describing her relationship with the defendant, and then at the defendant. I darned near laughed out loud. Her thoughts could not have been more obvious if she'd spoken them out loud!

Ya think maybe she had a touch of ADHD???!!!

Haha, probably! Maybe we just make our thoughts more clear to other people. No matter the situation apparently!

Originally Posted by nanners

I think I have this "gift" too. Friends ask me to tell a funny or dramatic story instead of them, as I apparently act out a better telling with my face. I can do accents fairly well too, unless asked to. Can't do a lot of things when put on the spot.

I have had to really train myself to hold back on my facial expressions too. It's been very hard to master a "neutral" look! But you can't actually let your boss know what you really think of them, right? Or you mother in law, etc....

(disclaimer: I am not a jerk, even though it kind of sounds like it in the above statement)

Same here with the accents! Well, Ozzie accent anyways. Anything else...forget about it. But when I speak with that accent, people actually believe I'm from there. Even got compliments on it from actual Australian folks.

Unfortunately I haven't mastered the "neutral" face. Even when speaking to people of authority I am like this. May or may not get me into trouble, haven't really found that out yet. Maybe it's just a problem with my impulse control? It depends on who I'm talking to I guess. Some people I try my best to make myself seem very nice....although deep down I actually think I am kind of an a**. Sometimes I try to be one.....usually when I don't like someone....which is most people. I have my issues....haha.

[ginniebean]

same here, I am either deadpan or animated.

[Fortune]

I am mostly the opposite - deadpan the majority of the time. Even when I think I am making an expression, apparently, I usually look deadpan to others.

[nanners]

Originally Posted by Fortune

I am mostly the opposite - deadpan the majority of the time. Even when I think I am making an expression, apparently, I usually look deadpan to others.

haha!

[Spacemaster]

When I'm not thinking about what someone else might think of me, (rarely) I am very expressive and natural.

I am very self conscious, so usually in public, I just have a very straight face. I am very often told that I look confused. Uh no, it's just me, off in my head somewhere.

Masking how I really feel? Barely possible. If I actually manage to not verbally blurt out my disdain for something, my face will do it for me.

[Twiggy]

I'm also the opposite to the point of seeming to have a flat affect at times.
It's like I must make myself seem more lively. I have to constantly remind myself about it when I'm in a social environment and really try to change my facial expressions.

[dogluver358]

I'd be a terrible poker player. Can't keep my facial expressions under control.

[Mrtommyboy1904]

I agree with many here, my facial expression give me away all the time. I simply cannot pretend to look interested, or vice versa. Perhaps we all never lost that child-like quality and intensity of being overly expressive.

[Subtract81]

I think i could be a decent actor but i seem to have an aversion to expressing myself, i can find it hard not to come across as confrontational, often i will look a little aggressive, i saw myself in a reflection in a club once and i scared the s**t out of myself, i think i am pretty clueless how i can come across on occasion, i normally have anything but 'how i am appearing' on my mind...