1 of 1- punkchick
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- Registered: July 31, 2011
- Posts: 102
Weird Lip Thing (Pursed?)
So, the past two times my boyfriend has teared up around me, I've noticed him do this very unique thing with his lips. It's not the infamous lip curl (I still have yet to discover whether or not he does that when he's full-out crying), but instead, he pulls his lips into his mouth so you can't see them (see picture linked below for example). I can tell he's doing it as a way to keep himself from actually breaking down. I thought it might have been called 'pursed lips,' which is what I searched to get the example pic, but a slightly more thorough googling seems to indicate that pursed lips are actually quite the opposite, where you pucker them outward like when you whistle. I was wondering if anyone knew what this is actually called, and more interestingly, whether or not you've ever seen anyone else do it to keep from crying. If so, do you like it? I think it's really sweet, because seeing him with his lips like this and his eyes glistening with tears, he looks so vulnerable, and it's obvious what he's feeling even if he's not letting himself cry.
- psychic_girl
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Re: Weird Lip Thing (Pursed?)
HI punkchick, nice to meet you on this forum first of all and my best wishes for 2015 
. I saw what you named ''pursed lips'' on some ocasions, mostly in women. I also saw men doing it quite a few times not only while refraining from crying but also while crying. I nemed this ''biting one's lips out of remorse'', i noticed this gesture when the person cries out of remorse for a bad deed, out of guilt.
I'm not sure if this is an explanation though, i do remember posting in the video section a clip with a soap actor that did this thing every time he had a crying scene. It was ''his'' mannerism, so to say, and in an interview long time ago he admited feeling ashamed for the crying and trying to cope with that even if that felt natural. He was in the position of recalling feelings of guilt from his past while playing a man leading a troubled life..
I still think some gestures such as this one are unconscious for most part, people can't explain them on all ocasions but sometimes they can express the feeling that was at the basis of the reason for their manifestation.
Last edited by psychic_girl (January 1, 2015 9:12 pm)
''I like crying. And now I not only wanna cry and show my crying to other people, I wanna just split myself down the middle and open my guts and just throw everything out!''
Woody Harrelson
- punkchick
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- Posts: 102
Re: Weird Lip Thing (Pursed?)
Well, I've never seen him cry out of guilt or remorse, per se, but I could definitely see it being related to shame or embarrassment. He was in the military, and the atmosphere there kind of taught him to bottle things up and hide his feelings, and I know he's also kind of ashamed of some of the things he's been through. So he might do it both to maintain his composure and because he's embarrassed of how emotional he's already gotten. The first time he did it, which is when he did it the most, he would tell me something personal, his voice straining with emotion, and then he would stop and just watch me with his lips held like that as he waited for my reaction.
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