So let’s talk about the one thing we see on everybody’s face right now: their eyes.
I find interesting that we have experience recognizing—or at least decoding—people’s faces without seeing their eyes. That happens all the time when we see someone wearing sunglasses. We only have cheekbones, noses and lips to work with, but we manage to know who it is. And still it’s unusual to notice someone with sunglasses and do a double-take because of the beauty of their mouth or nose. I should point out that I do say this as someone who is forever fascinated by noses. It’s the one feature I find will make or, sorry, break a face. It’s amazing how much of a difference changing your nose can make. Yet, in the grand scheme of faces, noses are supporting cast at best.
Smiling lips can be pretty too, and there are plenty of fine examples. Sanaa Lathan and Rachel Weisz come to mind. A recent like of mine is the two masked young women who are part of the Poly-Amory triad whom you can find on your favorite porn site. But all in all, faces are still never as interesting to me as when the eyes are part of the mix. The cliché is true: eyes are the window to the soul and that truth is part of why we avert our eyes when crossing strangers on the street. You may have a beautiful face, but usually it’s your eyes that are the main attraction. Even though we know not to stare, eyes are what we try to look at the most when in discussion. It’s a private place to look into, and even though we’re curious, we know we should modulate our gaze to match our intent. It’s one of the social skills we need to master to speak without words.
For some people, it’s trickier because their eyes are like gaze magnets disguised as scintillating gems. I think I’m only slightly exaggerating. I wrote before about a young woman whose angel eyes I noticed from 50 feet away in a crowded airport. (“Crowds? What’s that?” asks my 2020 self.) It’s a good story. You should go read it.
But now, in a pandemic world where going out requires a mask, all we have to go with are the eyes. It used to be that the eyes were one feature of someone’s face. Now it’s the only feature. Maybe because I live in a Western society, where masked faces have not been common until this year, I find that I have less practice recognizing people this way. And the thing is, I find all these eyes going around amazingly striking. Everybody’s eyes are more beautiful than I ever noticed them. It may be at as mundane a place as the grocery checkout, where I recently noticed a woman whose eyes had the intensity of Dianne Wiest.
Thinking about their relative importance, it’s as though the effect of some people’s pretty eyes was previously diluted by the rest of their face. The movement of their lips or the curve of their nose drew my attention away. And now that I don’t see these other features, what’s left are perfectly pure and glorious gems. I saw a lady at the dentist the other day and couldn’t help but enjoy the lovely and untroubled shape of her almond eyes. Later I checked out the staff page on their web site. The difference between masked and sans-mask was noticeable. It seems that we interpret faces more than we actually see them.
Recently I visited a town where I used to live, and which I always found had a higher than average ratio of lovely women. The way they look and dress speaks to my particular tastes. Probably men too but I don’t notice them as much. On that particular occasion, even though I knew to expect masked faces, I was really amazed by the beauty of the eyes I saw everywhere. It’s oddly pleasing to find such beauty doing such mundane things as picking out the groceries. It’s like getting a lifestyle upgrade. Everything feels a bit more luxurious when you have more beauty around you.
And you know what? Maybe that’s all I got from 2020, but I’ll take it.