I was talking with my mother today (she’s wised up and now calls me from strangers’ phones so I won’t see her Caller ID and I’ll pick up) and she reminded me of a closely held belief that my grandfather strongly held, “Never trust a man with thin lips.”
It may have had its origin as an old wives’ (or old grandfathers’) tale but perhaps there is also a scientific basis for that. When one is angry, one can thin one’s lips. When one is lying and trying to hold back the truth, one may clamp one’s lips together tightly at times subconsciously. And who knows, maybe there is a Grinch-like connection between the collagen in lips and the size of someone’s heart?
So, as an experiment, please find pictures below of a variety of top Republican figures and top Democratic figures and see if you recognize the slip of trust between the thin and full lips:
REPUBLICANS:
DEMOCRATS:
Hmm…maybe there is something to the old school way of seeing things. And I’m not just giving that lip service.
This is sage advice, AdLib, and it harks back to the Reagan years and the wonderful poster of same – Men with No Lips.
http://www.netropolitan.org/conal/menwithnolips.html
They are Reagan (the Republican whose lips fell off as Cyrano noted) Weinberger, Regan, and Baker. I think the assessment that lips posit sexuality and emotion is correct. These men, like R&R, are all focused on making themselves rich, on power, and on getting one over on everyone else. They are mean. Who has time for feelings when you’re obsessed with making money and crushing everyone else underfoot?
Now the ONE Republican with lips is a woman – Sarah Palin. I can’t explain it, but she definitely has lips and lipstick to prove it. I guess every side has its deviants, and she does, in every conceivable way, fill that category.
I strongly encourage Paul Ryan to dress as a vampire for halloween. A few teeth and he has it all
Agreed!
[img]http://planetpov.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/paul_ryan_dracula_2.jpg[/img]
Did you design this amusing graphic as well, Cyrano? You’ve inspired me to create a graphic as well and include yours in a post. Just let me know if this is yours too and I’ll include it!
Adlib, I don’t think of stuff like this as mine since I just altered Ryan’s face in one “borrowed” web photo, cut it out, and pasted it onto the body of the vampire in another “borrowed” web photo. It’s tun to mess with, isn’t it?
…and looking at this one this morning, it could take some more fine-tuning. Like Ryan’s complexion should be de-saturated – more chalky-looking. Vampires don’t have tans do they?! 🙂 and maybe the widows peak should be dragged down into more of a point….
The top pictures of bush and cheney irk me. The smug look on their faces tell me all I need to know. cheney was the puppeteer while bush was easily strung along. cheney is pure evil and bush is pure ignorant.
Romney would just be another bush.
Mitch McConnell as a Democrat – courtesy of photoshop:
[img]http://planetpov.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Mitch_McConnell_collagen_democrat-2.jpg[/img]
😆 Hilarious Cyrano!
🙂 I had to swap out the first one – Mitch needed campaign buttons.
Even funnier, Cyrano! What a change a pair of lips make!
😮 MG that’s so funny.
That is hysterical!
Cyrano, Does this make MccConnell a cross dresser?
Doesn’t look very ambiguous, does it? Maybe a more neutral tone in the newly collagened lips would have made him look more “manly”? …… well ….. um ….. no….. never mind
He looks like a grandmother. Fortunately, not my grandmother. 😉
😆 Ah AdLib don’t you know if your family does not come off of those two islands next to socialist continental Europe you can’t be a Republican.
Thin lips sink ships.
KQ, I wonder if Republicans coined the phrase, “Don’t give me any lip”?
What a line up of the GOP mug shots. 😆
My grandparents always said that men with thin lips were very mean and rarely smiled. so that hits the mark. Then again they also said to never trust a man whose eyebrows met in the middle, and although I can laugh at it now, it actually has been the case at various stages of my life.
For me though, the eyes tell us much more about a person, and none of the Republicans pictured here, can hold a prolonged gaze with the person they are talking to. That more than anything would suggest a liar or a person with something to hide to me.
Hilarious pictures though, they look like something you might expect to find hiding under a bridge in Denmark. 😉
Kalima, there are a variety of physical traits that people are uncomfortable seeing.
Thin lips, monobrow, exaggerated foreheads, frequently sweaty, compulsively chuckling at everything…
I had to admit it but I have felt the same about this theory, although I wouldn’t let it override my individual impression of somebody I met.
In fact, it’s probably an unconscious observation which goes into making our assessments. Round full lips has long been associated with sensuality (not necessarily sexuality) and perhaps we prefer people who have some kind of subtle seductive qualities. Looking over your choices in the thin lip category, there’s one general quality that critics can point to that connects them. A lack of human empathy or just human connection and maybe in our minds we associate lips with sensuality and that as a sign of humanness.
Thanks for an interesting post!
Nomadic View, indeed, it is nature’s way that fullness of lips (along with other areas) are intended to attract and ultimately lead to procreation (when it comes to Republicans though, they seem to be more the type to be told to procreate with themselves, thin lips and all). And, as people age, the body produces less collagen which is what makes soft tissue like lips, fuller.
Then again, maybe being an angry, dishonest person deteriorates collagen faster then usual?
A completely unscientific theory indeed!
My father told me if I had a choice between a crook and a fool I should always vote for the crook. The crook knows he can only get away with so much; the fool knows no bounds.
Okay, I’ll “bite” (pun intended). Which is which?
Glenn, since Romney’s so greedy, I think he’s grabbed both titles and Obama’s left only being The President. So, choosing between a crook who’s a fool and The President, that’s easy!
AdLib, thanks for the clarification. When I saw LFer’s post, I thought the same thing; that Romney is both the crook and the fool. And, he keeps proving it to us over and over.
Sage advice, LFer!
Though…if you have a choice of a foolish crook and a crooked fool, then what?
http://cinemaknifefight.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/washington.png
Don’t know who that guy is in that painting but though he has thin lips in that portrait, for some odd reason, I’d trust him at running the country.
There are always exceptions to the old wives’ tale…
I think it’s the kind eyes and the rosy cheeks, AdLib. 🙂
You’re right, Kalima, he does have that fatherly look.
No fair. Wooden teeth will thin out anybody’s lips.
I counter with Lincoln our best president.
During Lincoln’s presidency the south accused him of being a secret negro. Sound familiar? After Obama’s presidency is done hopefully in 2016 the parallels with Lincoln’s presidency will be so obvious.
I concede:
Ronald Reagan had lips when he was a democrat:
http://www.biography.com/imported/images/Biography/Images/Profiles/R/Ronald-Reagan-9453198-2-402.jpg
And when he became a Republican, they fell off:
http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/031208/031208_reaganobit_hmedium.grid-6×2.jpg
Clint Eastwood always has had thin lips, hasn’t he?.
http://www.usmagazine.com/uploads/assets/articles/55605-clint-eastwood-mocked-for-bizarre-republican-national-convention-speech/1346420353_clint-eastwood-lg.jpg
😆 you really got me on the Reagan reference, ‘And when he became a Republican, they fell off:’ Priceless!
I think we can solve our political problems simply by offering free collagen injections.
[img]http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/oo142/mbarn3065/lips.jpg[/img]