... this from Ms Gerli, reminded me of this ... 
We can't smile all the time, it would wear the muscles out! I'd probably been told to smile for the camera, a guarantee for an opposite reaction back in those days! (Hell, who am I kidding, still!)
Digging this photie out reminded me of how for years and years people, strangers, men for the most part, used to feel free to come up to me and say things like "smile, it may not happen" or "smile, the world's not going to end". Right through my teenage years, all of my 20s, even the early 30s. It used to shit me to tears, why?
(a) Generally I wasn't actually unhappy, I just wasn't grinning like a buffoon.
(b) It really bothered me that strangers, male strangers, felt it was ok to walk up and tell me to smile like a pretty girly should.
It doesn't happen any more, now that I think of it, not for years. I wonder why? (My guess would be I'm not a cute-as-a-button sweetiepie anymore, over a certain age most men just don't notice you or, perhaps, I smile more often now).
We can't smile all the time, it would wear the muscles out! I'd probably been told to smile for the camera, a guarantee for an opposite reaction back in those days! (Hell, who am I kidding, still!)Digging this photie out reminded me of how for years and years people, strangers, men for the most part, used to feel free to come up to me and say things like "smile, it may not happen" or "smile, the world's not going to end". Right through my teenage years, all of my 20s, even the early 30s. It used to shit me to tears, why?
(a) Generally I wasn't actually unhappy, I just wasn't grinning like a buffoon.
(b) It really bothered me that strangers, male strangers, felt it was ok to walk up and tell me to smile like a pretty girly should.
It doesn't happen any more, now that I think of it, not for years. I wonder why? (My guess would be I'm not a cute-as-a-button sweetiepie anymore, over a certain age most men just don't notice you or, perhaps, I smile more often now).
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5 comments:
Ditto.
(Love that pic, BTW - how lovely is your hair !! ). I grin, laugh, smile readily when im *engaged* with something/someone.
When i'm wandering around or by myself, i'm generally thinking, or relaxing, so my look can be blank, concerned, furrowed, worried.
I don't wander around grinning like a buffoon at nothing. Idjuts.
My sister & I both considered (briefly) some sort of surgery that would turn our downward facing mouths, up. Luckily we both thought we'd end up looking like the Joker from Batman and thought better of it.
lol DMM. priscilla presley already has the joker look cornered. yeh, if we all walked around grinning madly, the general public would mistake us for mad people. ok. they probably do already, but you get my gist.
when i was a lot younger, sometimes a grown up would say to me: "smile. it'll never happen." that used to drive me mad. i'd go and sit in the tree and contemplate the stupidity of having to grin like an idiot all day.
Awesome pic!!
As for why you haven't had that comment for years: I think most people now realize it's annoying and condescending as hell. The last person who said that to me was a defendant. I said, I'll smile when I put you in jail, how's that? No one has said this to me since. Koinkidink? Methinks not...
CAW & E, I'm just betting that nobody would say it to a boy/bloke/man - it's only girlies who cop the "should be smiling" thing.
Just like today, one of those irritating blokes who try to stop you to sign you up to a "charity" or a phone plan or new credit card in the street - tried to engage me today with a "hello darling, do you have a minute" FECKING lucky I didn't have a minute. If'n I'd had a minute I'd have given him a piece of my mind 1. I'm not his darling, 2. would he have tried that line if I'd been a man - NO!
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