"And don't underestimate the importance of body language!"
A writer wants to show that a character is attracted to someone, but it's too soon in the story for The Big Damn Kiss or even a Love Confession.
They have a few choices. They can have the character state, plainly, to a third party, their interest. The writer could have them tell the audience, Breaking the Fourth Wall. Or, if they're going for subtle, they can have them bite their lower lip coquettishly.
In real life, there are numerous reasons why a person might bite their lower lip. It is associated with anxiety, and numerous experts on body language will state that it is meant to show holding back thoughts that one doesn't wish to voice aloud, and while that does include sexual thoughts, fiction tends to focus on this aspect.
An Always Female trope, no matter which characters do this, it can suggest a sort of innocence or youthfulness to the attraction.
Related to Nervous Tics.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Archie Comics: Betty and Veronica have done more than their fair share of lower-lip biting over the many, many years of the comics' publication. Usually in response to Archie.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW): In one issue, a young Cadence is shown biting her lower lip while reflecting on how Endearingly Dorky Shining Armor is.
Cadence: [thinking to herself] Could he be any more adorable?
Fan Works
- Do You Believe in Destiny?: Upon first seeing the older Jaune, Ruby is annoyed that her friends are clearly very appreciative of his new look. Weiss is literally biting her lip.
Films — Animation
- The Little Mermaid (1989): Ariel does a brief lip-bite when confronted with her Love Interest Eric after she's turned human and washed up on the beach. Of course, not having her voice at the moment, she has to find non-verbal means of expressing herself.
- In Turning Red, Mei, Miriam, and Abby do this while observing Priya dancing with the goth girl indicating their Shipper on Deck attitude to that development.
Films — Live-Action
- F the Prom: When she tries to convince Cole to go to the prom with her, hoping he would help her become Prom Queen, Marissa bites her lower lip flirtatiously. Cole does agree to go to the prom with her, but only to further his goal of sabotaging the prom.
- Galaxy Quest: After Fred teleports up Garignack to deal with Saris' troops aboard the Protector, Laliari looks at him, biting her lower lip for a moment before she launches into The Big Damn Kiss.
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: Discussed and subverted, to hilarious effect. When Bethany teaches Martha to flirt in order to get past the guards, this becomes part of her training. But with Bethany stuck in Jack Black's body and Martha being an awkward nerd who isn't actually attracted to the guards, they both just end up looking ridiculous.
Bethany: Anything you can do to bring attention to the lips. Like this? [demonstrates] A nibble goes a long way, girlfriend.
- The Time Traveler's Wife (2009): During Henry's first meeting (at least from his point of view) with his future wife Clare, he gets weirded out by her when she gives him an intense Meaningful Look while biting her lip.
Literature
- Fifty Shades of Grey: Ana Steele's Character Tic is biting her lower lip, which is due to her shyness. She especially does it around her love interest, Christian Grey, who finds it arousing.
- World's Greatest Animals: Near the end of "Bug Out," Crystal bites her lower lip after Jermaine thanks her for saying he's really sweet following him telling her he likes her as more than a friend and has done so for the past few months.
Live-Action TV
- Castle (2009): In "Always Buy Retail", Castle flirtatiously tells Beckett to never, ever again use his ex-wife's Embarrassing Nickname for him ("Kitten"), and walks off, leaving Beckett biting her lower lip in clear interest.
- Pretty Little Liars: In "The Badass Seed", Hanna is forced to hop into the bathroom stall while he's showering in order to pretend to her mom she's the one showering, as Caleb is there in secret. At first he isn't really bothered by her presence but then he catches her covertly lowering her eyes and she gives him a guilty look while biting her lip, having obviously enjoyed the view.
- Smallville:
- Lois Lane frequently does this in her interactions with Clark, betraying she's attracted to him despite their constant arguments.
- In "Instinct", When Maxima spots Clark for the first time and is impressed by his Super-Speed, she bites her lip in lust before following after him.
- The Vampire Diaries: Played With This is one of Katherine Pierce's Character Tics, but while she sometimes uses it to look seductive, she also uses when she's nervous.
- You (2018): Love Quinn bites her lip in a flirtatious manner while talking with Joe in "Farewell, My Bunny".
Music
- The Cars allude to this in "My Best Friend's Girl":
Ooh, when you bite your lip
It's some reaction to Love, oh..ove, oh..ove - The central focus behind Halle's "bite your lip" is an interesting variation on this trope where she asks her lover not to bite their lip in order to express how much they love her, but rather to bite hers.
Sometimes the simplest words
Are the hardest to say
And I know we're speaking the same language
But I need someone to translate
'Cause I'm scared of losing you
And losing me too
I pray all these changes don't change us
I need youDon't bite your lip, bite mine
Don't sign off, sign in
Don't hold back
'Cause I need your arms to hold me tonight
Don't give up, give in
Webcomics
- Dumbing of Age:
- Dorothy, in the midst of a potential bisexuality crisis, ends up pushed into Amber's room and falls to the ground, leaving her in the perfect position to admire Amazi-Girl's rack. Cue the lip biting. Dorothy would later do it again when she sits next to Joyce-the woman that caused her bisexuality crisis in the first place.
- This is Amber's response when Walky revealed the real reason he went to take notes on Amber's class was to annoy Danny and "make yaoi eyes" at him, because he knows she's into that.
- Sunstone: Lisa is fond of biting her lip when she's turned on (or when she badly needs to pee). Ally, her friend and mistress, loves it.
Web Original
- The 'Dat Ass' meme, in which the words 'dat ass' are juxtaposed over a photo of rapper Rich Boy biting his lip to show appreciation for good looking butts.
Western Animation
- Family Guy: Played for Laughs in "Dearly Deported"; Brian, Peter, and even Lois bite their lips over how attractive Chris' new girlfriend is... only for Peter to accidentally bite his lower lip off.
- Kim Possible has been known to bite her lower lip when confronted by a guy she finds attractive, like Josh Mankey or Eric.
- Moral Orel: As a sign of how far gone he's gotten after he embraces masochism in "Pleasure", Orel bites his lip when his father Clay threatens to spank him when Orel admits he had erotic dreams about God doing the same thing. Orel also bites his lip during said spanking by God, as the page image for the episode shows.