DR. LILLIAN GLASS BODY LANGUAGE ANALYSIS: HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A "FARBISSEN" FACE? KAITLIN COLLINS HAS ONE
One of my favorite words in the Yiddish language is "farbissen." There is no perfect English translation, but it describes someone who appears tense, joyless, resentful, embittered, bitten, or perpetually unhappy. From a body language standpoint, the expression often includes a tight jaw, compressed lips, hardened eyes, and very little facial warmth.
It's not a one-time angry look. It's constantly wearing that facial
expression.
That is why Trump called Kaitlin out on her constant sour puss. He has to look at it every day, and for him it was not pleasant to look at consistently.
When President Trump joked about Kaitlan Collins during his White House Correspondents' Dinner remarks, what caught my attention was not only the joke itself, which was hilarious when he accurately made an uncanny ( pun intended) comparison to her looking like Dylan Mulvaney, whose face appeared on the Bud Light can, but Kaitlin's reaction.
She obviously had no sense of humor and was not a good sport when this comparison was made. Instead, she showed her "farbissen" self.
From the camera angle shown, I didn't observe a visible smile, laugh, or change in facial expression. There was no movement from the back of her body. But when someone's camera caught her reaction, this is what it looked like.
She was steely-eyed, and her brows were knitted together. Her lower jaw was so tense that hr masseter muscle popped out and the color left her face. In essence, her lower jaw turned white as the blood flow diminished. She was clearly angry.
While she consistently looks closed off and farbissen, this time is was visibly and shockingly evident.
Our faces communicate long before we speak and Kaitlin's face spoke volumes- angry volumes.
Whether people agreed with President Trump's joke or not, the exchange highlighted something I have taught for decades: Facial expressions send powerful messages.
Sometimes people don't remember every word you say.
But they do remember the face you present to the world