Getting citations from the smile police. Ugh!

Post Reply New Topic

Seems to me the smile police come in two types
1. The ones that believe it is your moral obligation to "smile and look pretty" all the time.
2. The ones that believe in positive thinking (the variety that just involves sweeping negative stuff under the rug) the ones that say "everything happens for a reason" when something bad happens to you, no matter how serious it is) . they tell you off for "looking angry" even though u aren't and just happen to look like u are.

Anyone have any issues the other way? Ie have you every been told off for smiling?
I was walking down the street and I heard a lady yell "what are you smiling at f#€kface?

In my opinion, whether you smile or not is no ones business but yours!

Can assure the OP, this isn't something that happens just to women. I'm a guy who has experienced that kind of nonsense multiple times.

Someone else mentioned, the kind of line of “Cheer up it might never happen”. I always wanted to reply “Too late, it already has.”

My favorite t-shirt when I was a kid said,

"Smile ... It makes people wonder what you're up to."

I was always the practical joking type.

This has ironically not happened to me, and I don't generally smile at anyone. I could imagine it sucking though because once again why do these people that YOU don't know care about what you're feeling and how you're acting.

I completely agree with B19 as a fellow Australian.

And, all these insurance and bank ads, I can't stand them too!

They all look so uncomfortable forced and faked.

I thought actors were supposed to make you NOT think they're just a person pretending.

HA! My manager walked by the other day and told me to smile, and this is exactly the look I gave him. Smooth as ever, I expected him to laugh at my feeble joke but instead he recoiled somewhat and kept moving. Ahh, well. Be careful what you wish for.

It really does make me paranoid though. I get it almost daily, which is strange because by now I'd figure people would stop doing that to me. And I do smile... I just do it when something is funny. I don't understand why anyone else needs me to be smiling constantly in order to feel comfortable. It's bizarre.

It may be an American thing. It's certainly annoying.

It's happened to me all of my life. I generally just ignore it now. I realize that I look angry or depressed, or "like I'm going to kill someone", but that's just the way that I look. I smile if I have a reason to smile. If something is amusing, or is making me happy, I smile. But I don't go walking around all day grinning like an idiot.

I will usually force myself to smile when I am meeting people, when someone approaches me, or if someone smiles at me. It's completely fake. It's not that I don't like the person, but smiling in that situation is completely unnatural for me. If I don't, it's assumed that I'm not friendly, so I have to play by the rules. Although I still don't really know what the rules are.

It may also be a Canadian thing. When I figured it out, I took up practicing smiles in the mirror, like a young teen, only I was hitting old age. I needed to learn to smile because I was moving to a "friendly to seniors" place. I really never smiled before, not automatically, and the practice made my face hurt.

Hint: maybe you are smiling "wide" but not "high." Look in the mirror and say "eeeeeee" - is that your smile? Okay, that was my problem. Now lift your upper lip and even try wrinkling your nose. (I'm glad I'm not where you can reach me.) I'm in good faith here. Watch the smiles in the ads and try some. It felt weird but now the world is nicer to me!

It's totally an American thing and Canada is maybe only slightly less horrible about it. I read that it's why Americans think Russian people are always grim and serious but Russians just hate insincere fake smiles they think you should only smile if you know and like the person, they call them American smiles and hate them and I totally agree why. Americans think everyone should look all happy happy joy joy even when they feel like a big bag of garbage, it's just sickening they want us to bottle up our negative emotions until our digestive systems are ripped apart they think if you're sad Satan will get you there's even a song about about it and they have another song if you're happy and you know it clap your hands and if you refuse they think you're horrible and say no wonder nobody likes you and you'll never have any friends and you'll be an unemployed loser spinster the rest of your life.

That Wednesday face is exactly what I do when told to smile. People usually say something like, "Never mind; that's worse!" And that makes me genuinely want to smile (but I don't, just to spite them).

I hate the smile police.

even though they are actors, they must believe that the sentiments they express and the facial expressions they style would be acceptable to the wide variety of audience they know they are going to be broadcast to.

the thing that irritates me (if i think about it) is that the audience that those ads are designed to appeal to are the majority of people who i see in the streets around me. the ads do work, and it confirms that the mentality of the lumps of meat walking and driving around the streets are quite basic in their concept of reality.

What do you mean? I'm having a bit of trouble interpreting what you're saying.

Yes, I understand their just appealing to their target demographic, a bit too much I might add (e.g. trying far too hard, and at worse limiting their potential pool of customers).

What audience than do you think it's appealing to?

Upper middle-class, caucasian, men and women socialites who spend their time on fashion, and other signs of status e.g. having a good home, boat, etc.?

One's who would need a bank loan to pay for their nice 6 bedroom house or whatever?

the general public is "taken in" by forced smiles.
the "general public"
that means most people out there.

Yep....the ad people are trying to appeal to the demographic stated by B9, and by you, too.

Consumers who they believe will spend quite a bit of money.

I really hate ads. They are just trying to use psychology to trick people into thinking or feeling a certain way about their products. It's manipulation. I especially hate how it's used against groups who may be more susceptible to those tactics, like children and the elderly.

Sometimes I will turn off the sound on commercials, and just watch them without it. It's much easier to notice the manipulation without the sound being used to induce certain feelings. It all looks very ridiculous without any sound.

Regular people fall for ads probably because they think differently. They are more social and so probably more susceptible to the tactics used. Ads are probably not created with autistic people in mind.