The Smile Police

[stork_error]

When you have natural frown lines and someone tells you to smile when you are peaceful happy and feeling fine, it is no different than telling a fat person to be skinny, a deaf person to hear, a blind person to see, a paralyzed person to walk. It's so damn rude there are no words.

It hurts because you are judged as being miserable when you are not even remotely feeling sad and nobody has a right to project an emotion on you that your not feeling and then ask you to change it when they have misinterpreted it in the first place. I'ts sooooooooo rude.

Frown lines make people think you are bitchy, cold, pissed off and unapproachable. Telling someone who has these naturally to smile is creul because you are making a statement that you have judged them as all of the above and it is infringing on your happy space. In essence you are saying that their natural facial expression has made you unhappy. Rude !

What if you had bells palsy and it left you with a permanent smirk and people kept telling you to stop giving them dirty looks. Very rude

Same ****. People are so ignorant of this

I know a girl who had smile surgery and when you look at her she always looks happy and it makes her seem so kind and approachable. Lucky her.

I cant count how many times I've been told to smile and my reply is always the same, Why? I'm not sad.

The moment I'm quiet and concentrating with my natural expression the world thinks I'm sad, if I'm not turning up the corners of my mouth somebody is judging me as sad or mad.

Thing is my frown lines are not even that bad, I feel really sorry for people who have bad ones, yeah those bitchy looking people.

 

[HoodedMonk]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...y-creates-Joker-style-perma-smiles-women.html

interesting

 

[Sometimes]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...y-creates-Joker-style-perma-smiles-women.html

interesting

Wow. Perma smiles. Unbelievable.

 

[HoodedMonk]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...y-creates-Joker-style-perma-smiles-women.html

interesting

Wow. Perma smiles. Unbelievable.

They have undeniable social benefits though.

 

[bluefox]

Have you ever been somewhere deep in thought and minding your own business and some random person tells you that " you need to smile"? I mean I could be standing there deciding whether to buy carrots or celery and get that comment. What gives someone the right to order your facial expression to suit them? Maybe I am overreacting but I just find it rude.

Ugh, yes I've run into them too, and usually when deep in thought also. Those people and their cousins, the hello police are really annoying.

 

[dd11]

Permasmile, that is pretty wild. I am surprised Politicians arent' lining up for that surgery since they always want to have some grin plastered on their face, lol. But, then if you got a perma smile, someone wouldn't like that either and they would come comment on that!

 

[VanillaCreme]

I think the point should be: People should smile and wave and say hello when they want to; Not because someone has ruffled feathers that they appear unpleasant.

 

[ladyforsaken]

I suppose smiling gives a more pleasant vibe around, I'd say it's not necessary. One doesn't have to smile if they don't feel like it. That said, there are some people who would smile out of habit or their personality... whether they feel good or bad, they just smile anyway. I'm a lot like that... perhaps that's why I never get asked to smile (except for when I was teaching).

 

[Despicable Me]

I understand why some of you might be upset, but looking at it from these people's perspective, they are going out of their way to do something they consider friendly, towards your best interests. They are showing they care and expressing they want the best for you, and going out of their way to talk to you. For total strangers to do things like that is amazing.

I'm not saying you don't have a right to be upset, but maybe you can look at this from another perspective?
Having strangers express something to you showing they care, when they don't even know you, is actually a pretty good reason to smile. It would probably make me smile if someone ever said something like that to me. (But they don't.)

 

[VanillaCreme]

What is the best interest if someone does or doesn't smile? Not trying to be a smartass with the question either. It just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Despicable Me]

What is the best interest if someone does or doesn't smile? Not trying to be a smartass with the question either. It just doesn't make sense to me.

There are known health benefits and positive attributes to smiling.
Smiling literally makes you feel happier, even when it's fake. It causes your body to release endorphins and serotonin, as well as reduces blood pressure and other such things.

Here's a link: http://longevity.about.com/od/lifelongbeauty/tp/smiling.htm
Some of these things are nonsense, but some of them are scientifically studied benefits.

And even when someone doesn't know all this, they sometimes generally just feel that smiling 'helps out'. (I've asked before.)

 

[dd11]

I think we all know the benefits of smiling. Just because I am not smiling and grinning from ear to ear while I am selecting my toothpaste or choosing my brand of crackers doesn't mean I need any help in that dept from random strangers.

 

[Despicable Me]

I think we all know the benefits of smiling. Just because I am not smiling and grinning from ear to ear while I am selecting my toothpaste or choosing my brand of crackers doesn't mean I need any help in that dept from random strangers.

I'm not saying you need it. I'm just saying maybe take a look at it from their perspective and you might see things differently.
Or not. I can't see the future, so I'm just speculating on what might happen if you did, and just providing a different perspective. Don't ask me why. I just... I just do that. It's what I do.

Edit: Does it come across as 'condescending' when I say things like that? I've often been told I sound condescending. I have never really understood why, but maybe I kind of see here. I'm telling someone to look at it from another direction and they might think differently. In a way some people might take that as a criticism of there being a fault in the way they already look at it. Hmm. Just for reference, I don't mean it like that. My statements aren't a criticism of anything. More like trivia, I guess.

 

[Triple Bogey]

Have you ever been somewhere deep in thought and minding your own business and some random person tells you that " you need to smile"? I mean I could be standing there deciding whether to buy carrots or celery and get that comment. What gives someone the right to order your facial expression to suit them? Maybe I am overreacting but I just find it rude.

I have had this all my life and I find it very irritating especially when I am not in a bad mood, just minding my own business.

I get 'cheer up' or 'so you can smile' or after telling a joke 'that was funny for you' - all of them I hate !

 

[dd11]

The thing is, that I could be in a perfectly Happy mood. Just going about my day, doing my business and living life and feeling fine. Then, someone has to make some kind of judgment on your face. I think it is just a very passive aggressive way of invading someone's personal space while pretending to be friendly. If you want to be friendly then why not be friendly and make some comment about the weather or the brand of orange juice you are buying or whatever. I guess I bring up that because it seems to always happen in the grocery store for me, lol.

 

[VanillaCreme]

What is the best interest if someone does or doesn't smile? Not trying to be a smartass with the question either. It just doesn't make sense to me.

There are known health benefits and positive attributes to smiling.
Smiling literally makes you feel happier, even when it's fake. It causes your body to release endorphins and serotonin, as well as reduces blood pressure and other such things.

Ah, okay, yeah I can see that. No doubt it does help lighten moods and feelings. Still, I'll smile when I want to. Which is more often than I think, because I had people telling me all the time that my smile was nice.

 

[Jafo]

I hear "you need to smile more" almost daily. And every time I hear it I want to kick the person saying it teeth down their throat!

 

[Triple Bogey]

When you have natural frown lines and someone tells you to smile when you are peaceful happy and feeling fine, it is no different than telling a fat person to be skinny, a deaf person to hear, a blind person to see, a paralyzed person to walk. It's so damn rude there are no words.

It hurts because you are judged as being miserable when you are not even remotely feeling sad and nobody has a right to project an emotion on you that your not feeling and then ask you to change it when they have misinterpreted it in the first place. I'ts sooooooooo rude.

Frown lines make people think you are bitchy, cold, pissed off and unapproachable. Telling someone who has these naturally to smile is creul because you are making a statement that you have judged them as all of the above and it is infringing on your happy space. In essence you are saying that their natural facial expression has made you unhappy. Rude !

What if you had bells palsy and it left you with a permanent smirk and people kept telling you to stop giving them dirty looks. Very rude

Same ****. People are so ignorant of this

I know a girl who had smile surgery and when you look at her she always looks happy and it makes her seem so kind and approachable. Lucky her.

I cant count how many times I've been told to smile and my reply is always the same, Why? I'm not sad.

The moment I'm quiet and concentrating with my natural expression the world thinks I'm sad, if I'm not turning up the corners of my mouth somebody is judging me as sad or mad.

Thing is my frown lines are not even that bad, I feel really sorry for people who have bad ones, yeah those bitchy looking people.

Great post !

---

I've had the area ******* manager at work say in front of customers, the staff and the manager that 'this guy doesn't ever smile'
I really should have punched the c*** in the face. It was a disgraceful thing to say especially in front of other people.
I am glad he got moved on to another area.

It's plagued me all my life, people moaning about my face. And if somebody says something now I give them a right mouthful back. They call me touchy but they have no idea what I have gone thru.

 

[dd11]

It's kind of like you feel fine and happy, and you decide to run to the grocery store for something quick, but you didn't have time to do your makeup. Then, feeling perfect fine, going about your life, someone comes and asks you "are you feeling sick today"? Um, no dumdum, I just didn't put on my makeup! AAaargh.

 

[niceguysfinishlast]

Ugh, yes I've run into them too, and usually when deep in thought also. Those people and their cousins, the hello police are really annoying.
[/quote]


Same here. A few people thought i was sad when i was really looking intently at a storm a few times.