Figure 1 – Lips, Natick, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

“Supposin that he says
Your lips are like cherries
Or roses or berries
Whatcha gonna do?
Supposin that he says
That yer sweeter than cream
And he’s gotta have cream or die
Whatcha gonna do when he talks that way?
Spit in his eye?”

Rodgers and Hammerstein, “Oklahoma“

I have blogged before about mannequins and their various state of dehumanization: the loss of face, the loss of features, even the all pervasive loss of heads. They are the ultimate of abstractions – diminished to emphasizing whatever body parts are necessary to sell clothing. Today I came upon the latest in this trend – a bald, ghost white, and featureless visage upon which ruby lips have been painted or is it decaled. There is something very odd, enigmatic, and disturbing about it. What are they trying to say to us?

First of all, there seems to be the implicit assumption that the lips have been added to nothingness. That is, we assume that it is not the other way around, where the lips the mouth are the last feature to disappear. You know like the Cheshire Cat. The loss of humanity in the Cheshire cat was recognized by Julian Huxley in his “Religion Without Revelation:“

““Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler, but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire Cat.”

I am just saying that there is something deeply disturbing to be found in a face with only lips. It is as if, in parting, the face was kissed by someone else’s lipstick coated lips. That is someone empathetic of the mannequin’s plight.  Therein, I think, lies the essence of the the paradox of the only-lipped mannequin. Lips speak, and they speak of intimacy.  In that regard they are the most humanizing of features. Walk around your local mall or store and you can become a “little creeped out” by the faceless and headless mannequin army. But give them lips and they become just a little bit more human.

“It’s tough to stay married. My wife kisses the dog on the lips, yet she won’t drink from my glass.”

Rodney Dangerfield