Telling people to "smile."

emdeesea

I'm taking a poll and I'm genuinely curious as to what people have to say.

First a question for the guys only: Let's say you walk into a shop, and there are several other men sitting around chatting with each other. One of them is the owner of the shop and he greets you. Then he says to you, "Smile! It can't be that bad!"

What would be your thought? How would this make you feel, if anything?

Women, how does this make YOU feel, if anything?

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zcb94

As a gal, I'd be glad to see my guy loosen up and accept the encouragement.

branflakes1980

depending on my mood I would either respond with something ridiculous like "Actually my *(person of choice)* just died so yes, it can be THAT bad" wait for his reaction and then follow it up with "just kidding of course but you really should mind your own business" or I would just flash him the cheesiest creepiest smile I could muster up. But that's just me.

shoppingmaniac86

I always get people telling me to smile. I think because I look angry or something *kitten* rest face syndrome lmao. But I oblige and amuse them and smile. I don't have an issue with it I just forget to or just don't sometimes lol

s_y8s

It makes me smile most of the time when someone says that to me lol

justinegibbons

I personally have serious resting b i t c h face and hear comments like this one pretty often. I get annoyed by it because.. Well, it's my face lol. I usually just smile and don't say anything.

Holly_Roman_Empire

I'm always smiling, so on the off chance that I'm not, it probably *is* that bad. I'd probably smile back and ignore it.

shoppingmaniac86

justinegibbons wrote: »

I personally have serious resting b i t c h face and hear comments like this one pretty often. I get annoyed by it because.. Well, it's my face lol. I usually just smile and don't say anything.

Me too girl me too lol

WebFootFreak

People need to realize that there are quite a few of us (men & women), including myself, my son and my youngest daughter, who's mouth has a natural downturn. That means that our neutral expression is often seen as "angry" or "depressed"

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debsdoingthis

shoppingmaniac86 wrote: »

I always get people telling me to smile. I think because I look angry or something *kitten* rest face syndrome lmao. But I oblige and amuse them and smile. I don't have an issue with it I just forget to or just don't sometimes lol

LOL,I Have that resting *kitten* face thing as well, but I'm not going to counteract that by wandering around with an inane smile plastered on my face.

shoppingmaniac86

debsdoingthis wrote: »

shoppingmaniac86 wrote: »

I always get people telling me to smile. I think because I look angry or something *kitten* rest face syndrome lmao. But I oblige and amuse them and smile. I don't have an issue with it I just forget to or just don't sometimes lol

LOL,I Have that resting *kitten* face thing as well, but I'm not going to counteract that by wandering around with an inane smile plastered on my face.

I was in Florida when the car rental guy told me to smile he thought I was gonna kill him lmao and I was like ok so I smiled all the way until our flight departed in the airport people seemed creeped out but I was smiling right? My friends couldn't stop laughing

_incogNEATo_

What's worse is when people tell you "please DON'T smile"

shrinkingletters

I take the Larry David approach.

shoppingmaniac86

_incogNEATo_ wrote: »

What's worse is when people tell you "please DON'T smile"

Lmao yeah please don't!

emdeesea

I was curious because I overheard several older men (prob late 60s-70s) this morning talking amongst themselves about how women tend to really hate being told to smile and why.

I wondered to myself how they would like it if someone was constantly telling them to smile, even when they might be having a bad day.

Personally, I also have naturally RBF, or I may be preoccupied with my mind somewhere else. I'm not always thinking about smiling so yeah, it's irritating at times.

shrinkingletters

Anyway, as a rule, I don't go around telling people to smile. It's none of my business why they aren't smiling, I don't know them, and no one is obligated to look pleasant for me because I'm a grown adult person and can go on with my day without expecting everyone in a 5 mile radius of me to behave like I'm in my own episode of The Truman Show.

Northernlight03

I think I would be like ' God i must look really crap today, and I thought I was having a good day' lol

shoppingmaniac86

emdeesea wrote: »

I was curious because I overheard several older men (prob late 60s-70s) this morning talking amongst themselves about how women tend to really hate being told to smile and why.

I wondered to myself how they would like it if someone was constantly telling them to smile, even when they might be having a bad day.

Personally, I also have naturally RBF, or I may be preoccupied with my mind somewhere else. I'm not always thinking about smiling so yeah, it's irritating at times.

Watch that dumb video about that chick that got "street harassed" lmao that chick was acting like the whole world was trying to rape her. People are saying hi how's your day or smile. And she's like walking down the street looking like someone is ready to attack her.

MostlyWater

I hate it. My face is my own business.

shrinkingletters

MostlyWater wrote: »

I hate it. My face is my own business.

Exactly:

Cindy4FunFit

This happens to women all the time; surprised to hear men do this to other men. It's expected- that pink poster above is pretty accurate.

Cindy4FunFit

And to how it feels- no one really wants someone else, especially a stranger, telling them how to run their own emotions or expressions. So ultimately irritating.

shrinkingletters

Cindy4FunFit wrote: »

And to how it feels- no one really wants someone else, especially a stranger, telling them how to run their own emotions or expressions. So ultimately irritating.

Seriously. Some guy at my last gym went bananas after he went out of his way to get my attention (I was on the leg press, with my earbuds in listening to music, you know, BUSY), to ask me why I wasn't smiling. I was SO annoyed. Really? You stopped me in the middle of exercising to ask me to smile? Why? I told him I wasn't smiling because I was there to work, not to look pretty for anyone there. As I went to put my earbuds back in, he tried grabbing my arm to argue with me. I yanked away and went to the counter to let someone know and he followed yelling about how I was a *kitten* and he was just trying to make "conversation".


Yeah. Okay.


The problem usually with people who tell strangers to smile, is that they feel these strangers are obligated to do so. It's obnoxious entitled behavior.

x_blackrainbow

branflakes1980 wrote: »

depending on my mood I would either respond with something ridiculous like "Actually my *(person of choice)* just died so yes, it can be THAT bad" wait for his reaction and then follow it up with "just kidding of course but you really should mind your own business" or I would just flash him the cheesiest creepiest smile I could muster up. But that's just me.

This is my preferred course of action. They don't call me Wednesday for nothing.

shrinkingletters

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Alluminati

emdeesea wrote: »

I'm taking a poll and I'm genuinely curious as to what people have to say.

First a question for the guys only: Let's say you walk into a shop, and there are several other men sitting around chatting with each other. One of them is the owner of the shop and he greets you. Then he says to you, "Smile! It can't be that bad!"

What would be your thought? How would this make you feel, if anything?

Women, how does this make YOU feel, if anything?