Thursday 29 April 2010

It's in the Eyes.

I saw a young woman walking towards me outside my local supermarket today. Her walk attracted my attention because, strange as it might sound, it didn’t look English. She had a young man in tow, and she looked in charge. As she drew level with me she stared pointedly into my eyes. It gave me a mild shock. It wasn’t so much fierce as supremely confident. And then she spoke to her companion in a language that was undoubtedly Slavic.

So I got to thinking about eyes and ethnic identity. It seems to me that Germanic women have eyes that are soft, but cool. Gaelic women have eyes that are mystical and easily roused to flame. Latin women have sensual, passionate eyes. The eyes of Slavic women are strong and piercing. A generalisation, I know, but interesting.

3 comments:

Zoe said...

I feel the same way about eyes... the eyes (along with the mouth) are the most expressive part of the body. They can express anything, everything. In one second.

JJ said...

Eyes have become something of a leitmotif in my fiction. I sometimes wonder whether I emphasise them too much. But the number of times I have seen the inner person through their eyes...

lucy said...

I love eyes. How they can say so much yet so little, if you know what I mean. Sometimes, you think you see something in their eyes, and then you remember it's just the way their eyes are. I love Italian eyes :)