Or is that just an American phenomenon? Also, when and why did eye rolling become a way to express irritation?
Most facial expressions are cross-cultural, if not all.
Probably not what you are looking for, but among the Woodabe in Niger, eye rolling is used in male beauty pageants (from which young women pick out temporary husbands) to demonstrate health and virility. Repeated exposure to malaria (and no doubt other diseases) can cause they eyes to yellow, so clear white eyes signal health.
Well that right there shows that eye rolling as a show of annoyance is not universal --so facial expressions are not 100% cross cultural. I’d love to hear some other non American examples.
In Taiwan - possibly China and maybe other Asian countries as well - it is indeed an expression of exasperation or sarcasm, like in America. It’s referred to in Taiwan as fan bai yen, “flipping white eyes” (or “flipping eye whites,” perhaps a better way to interpret it.)
Interesting! Do you know when this practice started in Taiwan? My elderly mother (American) does not recall anyone rolling their eyes when she was young. She thinks it became a thing when we (her children) were kids. She says that in her day & when her mother (my grandmother) was a child, people stuck out their tongue to show annoyance.
I don’t know, unfortunately, and I can’t recall at the moment actually seeing someone do it, but I know a Taiwanese family member of mine did it, and the eye-rolling expression was well known enough that it had its own moniker (the “flipping white eyes” term.)
Not done in Japan. Can’t think of an equivalent.
Head nodding and shaking certainly aren’t. In some Western culture a shake is no and a nod is yes.
In other Western cultures such as Greek, a Nod is definitely no. (Actually more of a head-toss). This is very distinct in Italy where the former Greek colony in the South has the nod no and the North has the nod yes.
The closest version in Spain would be looking askew at someone; when the someone is God in Heaven, in a “grant me patience before I kill this moron” expression, you may get something similar to a rolleye (the expression this baby has, minus the hands, is the next step; add the hands and you have the ultimate expression of silent annoyance). You don’t roll your eyes at people.
according to this slate article :
Aaaaargh goddamnit YamatoTwinkie, I wanted to link to that article.
Yes!! Using my German emoticon :rolleyes:
How much actual rolling is involved in American eye rolling?
I don’t think it happens here in Holland, although looking up at the sky/ceiling can express a similar sentiment.
I live on the mainland and I don’t think it’s well-known here, though I will see if anyone recognizes fan bai yan.
The most popular messaging app – WeChat – has a pretty big set of smileys built in, but no rolleyes*. When I’ve queried this with friends, they’ve said they had never heard of such an expression, but maybe the way I acted it out was weird?
- Meanwhile a lot of the smileys don’t map to things we do in the West. For example, the stick out tongue emoticon is simultaneously winking. There’s a few different kinds of nervous, a picking nose smiley (not that we don’t do that in the west, but what does it mean as a smiley?) etc
Some American teenagers can roll their eyes so severely that you can barely see the iris. It’s incredibly annoying & I hope this practice does not invade your non-eye-rolling country. Here is a mild example.
Hm, wait: I always assumed eye rolling meant a circular motion. But this is simply looking up. But it occurs to me the rolling part could simply be rolling up rather than in a circle.
In my experience it is generally an arc, usually from the roller’s right, then up and left.
My daughter does so exactly like her father, and from such a very young age, that I am really tempted to think its genetic. LOL!
Nodding for yes is actually the norm in the vast majority of cultures all over the world. That’s a gesture, though, not an expression.
This article from the American Psychological Association says differently: