It crossed my mind that I could have created a blogpost in which visitors were challenged to offer ideas about the woman. What has been her life story and what, if anything, does she do for a living? However, I decided against that. I will give you the solution soon.
To me there's sadness there, weariness and worry. In its relaxed state that surely does not look like a happy face. Perhaps she has known grief or maybe her hidden state of health is signalled by her demeanour. I guess that some might see a certain toughness in that face, a hard-nosed resistance to frivolity and nonsense. Don't mess with me!
The art of deducing someone's character from their facial appearance is known as physiognomy. I guess that we are all amateur physiognomists. Habitually, we try to read faces. They might be the faces of friends or family members or they might be strangers' faces. Maybe some are better at reading faces than others.
Nonetheless, everybody makes mistakes when reading faces. Grinning expressions may hide inner pain and serious faces might mask comedians.
Long ago, before we came to this house, I was a regular at "The Closed Shop" public house in Commonside, Sheffield. The landlady was a mature, no-nonsense woman called Sylvia. By chance, late one Friday evening I overheard her talking to another customer about me and to paraphrase what she said, it went something like this...
"I know he comes across as serious - like he's looking right through you but once you get to know him he's okay. Quite funny at times."
And then I continued to sing "The Wild Rover" to the regulars... or was it "On Ilkley Moor" - I can't rightly remember. It was a little pub in which we formed a community. There was Shirley, Colin and Lorraine, Tony who now lives in Beverley, Roger, The Young Ones, Rowena and Alan and Kirk and others I can hardly remember.
Anyway, getting back to the face, I will not say the woman's name but she is a secondary schoolteacher working with ASN pupils (Additional Support Needs). Now you might better understand how pressure of work has subtly impacted upon her face - probably over many years.
If she had been a singer on a cruise ship or a ballet dancer or a gardener or even a beautician, I doubt that her face would have become like the one we see in the photograph. Essentially, she is not an unattractive woman and she is blessed with good bone structure but in my view the job has obviously taken its toll. She almost looks suicidal - in need of professional counselling, retirement or a long beach holiday.
Earlier this year I read a book by Christine Rosen called The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World. Among other things, it touches on the fact that children are no longer learning how to "read faces" and interact with others. Much education is online (or on devices) and kids look at screens rather than each other. I know modern technology is good in so many ways, but I also find it worrisome.
ReplyDeleteReading faces is a survival technique, we need to spot friend or foe in everyone we encounter, there would have been a time where every strange might kill you.
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