Controversial Face Readings — Look Again at Palin
September 1st, 2008 by Rose Rosetree
Reading faces can be controversial for many reasons. One is simply learning how to look at unusual facial characteristics, such as asymmetry, the difference between left and right.
Recently we’ve had a bit of controversy at this blog over my characterization of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s mouth as crooked. A finely trained artist took to measuring photos with straight edge and triangle. Actually, a face reader like me uses facial segments, not inches or centimeters.
Some tools are at my disposal for cropping and flipping photographs, so here I would like to show you what I meant when I called attention to smile asymmetry in a recent article. Take our your eyes, Blog-Buddies. And bring your eyelashes for blinking so you can do double and triple takes, all to your heart’s content.
Looking for mouth symmetry, your point of reference is the nose tip. Use that to figure out where to draw a vertical line clear down the face. And, of course, remember to cross over to tell another person’s right from left, just as you would do if shaking hands. The only place you’ll actually see the right side of a face to your right is when you’re looking in a mirror!
We have had to create a special web page just for this particular face reading event. If any of you blog-buddies know a website that is good for saving photos, please let me know. Photobucket used to be a great workaround for this blog, but ever since it has been upgraded, it just isn’t working for me any more. Ironic but true.
Anyway, let’s consider this linked page a special treat in honor of your developing eyes as a face reader. Click here and start seeing the two halves of a face.
If you can’t easily tell which side has a significantly wider segment of mouth, compare the photos, either with each other. For one, of Gov. Palin, I was able to flip her left side over to the right so that you can compare something very similar. This is how the right side of her mouth would look if it were actually as narrow as the left side. Enjoy!
This is a GREAT post, Rose. I love the link.
Thanks, ANITA. The link isn’t as polished as I would like, but not having unlimited time, technological resources, and tech smarts right now, it’s at least a sketch.
Thanks for posting Rose, it is helpful to see how you are thinking (this is an excellent way to gauge symmetries), and I would even concede the point, except for the sample of Gov’s left side is from a different photo (from the add’l view you have below). And without some adjustment, you really can’t use either photo accurately as you are describing.
In your originally posted photo of SP, her head is tilted slightly to her right. If you draw a line straight down from her nose with her head tilted, of course her mouth becomes asymmetrical (just like if we took the headshot of you from your blog [more exaggerated in tilt, but same principle] and drew a line down from your nose tip, your beautifully and nearly perfectly symmetrical smile would look completely lopsided). I adjusted for tilt - and will send you the file via email. Also included are closeups of her original smile, the two right sides put together and the two left sides together. All three are quite similar in size and shape.
The alternate photo is even more problematic. In this photo her head is turned a bit to the right. Next to your nose, your mouth is the most rounded part of your face and the perspective shifts quickly if not viewed straight on. The receeding half will always be smaller than the closer half. You can’t draw a line straight down a turned face, it curves (just like drawing a vertical line down the face of an egg, it only looks vertical when straight on), and you must adjust for perspective.
On some people, the asymmetry is exaggerated enough that it is still apparent even if the head photos are tilted or rotated. I don’t believe this is the case with Sarah Palin. Look at the photos I am emailing you and see what you think. Is there something else I’m missing?
TLCHANG, people can always see things differently. I’m not going to attempt you to convert you to my way of seeing.
But I can tell you that the all three views of Mr. Parnell do come from the same photo. I brightened them, and the brightness did not always come out identically. I personally copied that photo three times, cropped it, etc.
Thank you for spending all this time to educate and share, TLCHANG.
Rose, I’m really not trying to be argumentative or ‘beat a dead horse’. I really AM trying to understand what it is you’re seeing in this case. Generally I can see exactly what you are referring to (as with your example of Mr. Parnell, which I completely concur with). I just don’t see it in the case of Sarah Palin. This is one case where I have no idea what you are really seeing or even referring to since it is so different from what it looks like to me.
The Lt. Gov.’s right and left sides of his face are VERY different. Would you call his upper lip “blade-like”?
His left side has a very wide jaw, much wider than the right. (Like the dieting starlets, but for another reason, I’m sure.) His nose tip angles down….hmmm. Cleft chin….hmm. The right lower eyelid is straight–not open to new people right away. That right eye under the eye puff! (looks scary to me) The RIGHT ear angles out (not the left ear). All the signs you’ve pointed out that might indicate some inconsistencies or other trouble.
Also, he exposes way more teeth on the right side than the left. He shows his bottom teeth (the huge pictures on the State of Alaska website are great!) It looks like he’s clenching his teeth.
He’s a very interesing character. What do see in his mouth and eyes? Surely that circle around his right eye isn’t a “philosopher’s circle”?
Gov. Palin’s right jaw is wider (the opposite of the Lt. Gov.). She is wearing an earring ONLY in the right ear for her official State of Alaska portrait! I also saw another picture of her at a formal event with a different earring in each ear. It looked cute, but like a strange thing for a governor (or future governor) to do.
She is also showing her bottom teeth; I love the full page picture at http://gov.state.ak.us/photos/Gov-Palin-2006_Official.jpg
Looks like she has two eye puffs–alot of stress? Her front teeth (her ego) are also large, and the teeth next to them (how she relates to others)are somewhat small.
Very interesting!
LISAW, you’re on a roll here on these recent comments.
Yes, I’d say you’re right about the blade-like lower lip of the Alasan Lt. Governor. See the photo, everyone,at this link:
http://www.rose-rosetree.com/blog/2008/08/30/sarah-palin-and-more-crooked-smiles-face-readings-of-politicians/
We haven’t seen the like since the days when George Bush I invited Americans to read his lips. Well, perhaps Karl Rove and Dick Cheney, in repose, actually….
This unusual combination of having a mouth be both in-drawn and hard in texture, relatively thin, and tapering at the edges goes with a talent for effective, expedient speech. The potential challenge is cruelty.
A head shot of Sarah Palin is on the cover of Time Magazine. When I was taking a look at it on the newsstand, the assymetry in her smile was very clear. Here’s a link on-line to the cover photo http://www.time.com/time/magazine/current.
Thanks, KAREN. In case the cover is no longer current, this link might work better:
http://img.timeinc.net/time/images/covers/20080915_107.jpg
What’s really fun to do with photos like this, making details easier to see, is to right click on a photo, copy it onto a word document or email, and then pull on the corners to enlarge.