Why especially women like to roll their eyes

When I was enjoying the medium in the latest episode of ‘Tamara and Maria's Therapy Trip’, I noticed that the medium rolled her eyes at one point. after a comment from Maria. Because it's quite a clear way of showing that something bothers you, I wondered where rolling your eyes actually comes from. I had the idea that it's something you mainly do in your teenage years; I thought: ‘adults don't do that anymore, do they?’. When I started paying attention, I quickly realized that quite a few people, including adults, do this. But it's not always as obvious as I saw in ‘Therapy Trip’.

Rolling your eyes is a form of non-verbal communication

Unlike, for example, the middle finger, it can be used in different ways. You can mean it sincerely, but you can also roll your eyes sarcastically. This is more to be understood in a funny, mocking way, where the other person does not feel personally attacked. Notably, it is mainly women who roll their eyes. Men express their dissatisfaction or aggression more often in a verbal way. Women express these kinds of emotions more often in an indirect way, which includes non-verbal communication: rolling your eyes is communicated just as indirectly as when you gossip about someone else. Yes, that is also something that women generally do more than men.

Women who roll their eyes often do this as a form of dominance

You clearly show that you do not take the other person seriously, and certainly do not seriously consider giving a verbal response to them. Now it seems that only very dominant, unfriendly women use this as a means of communication, but nothing could be further from the truth. It can also be a way to build a wall when you feel vulnerable. If someone asks a sensitive question that you don't want to discuss, or crosses your boundary in another way, rolling your eyes is a simple way to cut the conversation short. If you have a very dominant conversation partner, there is a chance that you will end up in a huge argument. Because it is anything but polite to respond this way, of course. But okay, then you indeed don't have to talk about the sensitive topic anymore.

Source: archive.nytimes.com