"Look me in the eyes!" (Not the book.)

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Someone actually said it to me this evening.. some chick friend of a friend who made the assumption that the joke I made to my friend was referencing her (it wasn't) and then got all (momentarily, the situation was easily diffused) offended and was ranting at me for a bit and when I responded to her, she cut me off and said "Look me in the eyes when you're talking to me!" and I damned near laughed! Buuut I was able to contain myself, make eye contact with her and explain that I wasn't talking about her in the least bit and she was getting all upset based on an incorrect assumption. (which she then admitted happens often for her because she's not good at detecting sarcasm at all. I told her if she's going to assume anything, assume people are intending to be funny, not offensive, and she smiled and thanked me for that.)

Annnnyways, I thought it was pretty damned funny that someone actually said "Look me in the eyes!" as I can't recall anyone actually getting pissed about my lack of eye contact before and saying that. Maaaaybe it happened when I was a kid and can't recall.. actually, come to think of it, as I type this I can recall one other time about 6 years ago, but yeah, it's definitely not a regular occurring thing.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

From where I live, the usual is not "look me in the eyes" -- it's on the lines of "take a hint" (with the look from the eyes). It's supposedly a warning, but I took it a bit literally back then...

If the line is taken literally, and translated to english, it means "let the look of the eyes take you".

And it's not just me who ended up on the end of the message -- but the message is usually from superiors/guardians/teachers towards subordinates/children/students.


Sorry. I cannot helped it.

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People have said that to me on on occasion.

I was engaged to a deaf lady for a few years and she got loudly angry a few times when I didn't make eye contact as we were discussing things. She explained that in the deaf community, looking away when someone was speaking was the equivalent of rudely telling them to shut up. She had cochlear implants but still had to read lips. After she told me about this I realized that my verbal comprehension was actually improved if I watched the lips of a person speaking. So I actually learned something that was helpful to me. Sort of related, she also got me hooked on enabling captions on the television, which I found out make it much easier for me to understand what is being said.

Teachers of autistic kids will encourage to look at them instead of starting off at something, but not ask for eye contact.

For me, "look me in the eyes" is something I associate with my childhood - I've not got it so much as an adult; I guess a mix of getting better at faking eye contact and different social norms applied to kids.

I always associate it with being told off by my parents or teachers - it always seemed vital to them that I look them in the eye when my explanation was being judged or I was accepting a scolding. Of course, that was just about the worst possible time for me to try and do it; my mind would be racing with thoughts of getting into trouble, so I couldn't possibly pay attention to my rudimentary childhood passing.

The odd times that I hear it as an adult, it still makes me cringe; it's a reminder that people are making moral judgements about me based on a form of communication that I barely understand and can't always control.