I feel deprived of a vital gesture. I’m able to roll my tongue along the longitudinal axis, am able to rRrrRoll my Rs with ease, and have double-jointed thumbs, but I can’t raise one eyebrow at a time. I consider this gesture the height of niftiness, and wish to know whether or not I can learn this.
I understand that the eyebrows are controlled by the (forgot the Latin name. Frontalis something. Let’s call it the eyebrow-raiser-thingy.) eyebrow-raiser-thingy, which seems to be a single sheet of muscle by my best (albeit ignorant) guess. Are people like Leonard Nimoy simply blessed with a split E-R-T muscle, or is it finely-controlled co-ordination of a seemingly uncoordinated muscle?
It can probably be learned. There was a prominent nonverbal psychology researcher who supposedly learned to move most of the muscles in his face individually (and there are a surprising number of them.)
I can raise my right eyebrow, Spockwise, but when I try to raise the left one alone they both go up. I have not been able to overcome this, but it’s not like I devote a lot of time to trying.
I, too, can raise one eyebrow at a time, if the one you refer to is my left. If I scrunch up my face, I can also lift my right independantly, but I rather think the face-scrunching negates the lift there. It just takes hours of boredom and a good mirror to practice this technique…much like the art of moving one eyeball seperate from the other. That I can also do (in a limited way). Just wait for a really dull day, and try your darndest. Then maybe hit yourself on the head if that doesn’t work.
I think you could learn to do an at least passable one. Here’s what you do: Halfway squint one eye, and raise your eyebrows. Keep doing this. It’ll eventually give you the ability to raise one eyebrow with almost no movement. That’s how I taught myself.
I can do one at a time, either one, very quickly in succession. It’s definitely a learned skill. I couldn’t always do it. It’s like getting wrinkles in your forehead. The more you contract your muscles, the easier it is to control them. So practice, practice, practice.
And thank you for inadvertently stating that I, in some obscure way, represent the height of niftiness.
You can; I did, in my callow youth when I had nothing better to do than stare in the mirror and try to think of ways to improve my face. You can see me doing it if you click on the link below.
It is a lethal weapon, I agree. I frequently intimidate without wholly meaning to.
I learned when I was a little kid in church and it predated Star Trek. Actually, my father the minister could do it with his left eye, and sometimes when he was preaching that was his secret signal to me.
I can raise either the left or right, but am maybe slightly better with the left. I can also in rapid succession go left right left right left right maybe 20 times before getting “tired”.
This is so weird! I can only do my left eye too! Are there any ‘righties’ out there?
Another thing I can do that totally freaks my wife out is moving my bottom eyelashes side to side. It’s hard to describe… imagine being able to blink sideways, instead of up and down.
This is so weird! I can only do my left eye too! Are there any ‘righties’ out there?
Another thing I can do that totally freaks my wife out is moving my bottom eyelashes side to side. It’s hard to describe… imagine being able to blink sideways, instead of up and down.
I read a line in a book (it was something about submarines, IIRC; perhaps Blind Man’s Bluff) that said the captain had the “unusual” ability of raising one eyebrow. I thought this was strange because I’ve always been able to raise only one eyebrow or the other. It also seems strange that some people can only raise one eyebrow but not the other. But then, some people probably think it’s strange that I can’t curl my tongue.
It is so not a useless ability!
When I arch my eyebrow people run. Highly effective with the kids and hubby.
However when hubby tries it and cannot this sends the heathens into fits of laughter since he has only one eyebrow. Okay, I giggle a bit also.
I had heard somewhere that the tounge thing is hereditary and so maybe the eyebrow thing as well?
Do a poll of family members.
I, too, am left-browed, as well as left-handed. I am also a self-taught brow-raiser, and as for learning it, I suggest doing it in your youth, while working at a job that requires mind-numbing repetition.
For me it was almost twenty-five years ago, I worked as a mechanical artist pasting-up business cards. Good thing I spent my day hunched over a drawing board looking down, as the facial contortions required in learning to raise an eyebrow made me look as if I was in extreme pain.
It was unusual because of his fine degree of control over it. Very useful skill for a Naval Officer, although in his case I think it was only partly conscious. He could give all manner of subtle meaning to his words with his eyebrows, and God help you, if, during a qualification board, you mananged to make his eyebrow jump straight to full-mast. That always meant a huge list of look-ups, and frequently a re-board (Yes, I was part of SUBDEVGRU ONE).
I taught myself the eyebrow trick by holding one brow down with my fingers, and then trying to raise the free brow. It didn’t take very long, maybe a couple of weeks for full control. It is, I’ve found, a somewhat perishable skill. I hadn’t done it much in the last couple of years, and have found my lange of motion and control isn’t what it used to be. Wanna guess what I’m doing as I type this…?
