I’ve endured the male equivalent of this my whole life.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Why?”
“You look angry.”
“This is just my face!”
That’s not really a male thing, nor is your example an equivalent. All sexes can get the angry face comment because people misinterpret others expressions wrong all the time. Not everyone is lucky enough to have resting beauty face. Heck just yesterday I was literally told by a nationally renowned dentist that my “small polite smile” would in fact labelled a grimace… oof.
There is usually a sexual connotation in being told to smile (to look prettier to the viewers), while being asked if something is wrong generally doesn’t have the same sexual undertones/motivations. The equivalent to the post would literally be a woman getting catcalled/told to smile and them thinking about escape routes. The difference in the gender swap is when the guy hears the smile comment they move on thinking about smiling (as shown by your comment), while the lady hears the smile comment and wonders if she’s in an unsafe situation that could possibly end their life.
Don’t get me wrong, both situations are awkward and uncomfortable to be in/navigate. Both put the onus the person hearing it to engage their defenses as to dispell/appease the accusations. And while both deal with fear, it really is just the power dynamics and inherent sexual nature that makes for entirely different interactions/outcomes.
(I say woman/man but the scenario still stands when women= any person smaller or weaker and man= any person with an inherent power/advantage over another. So if a big guy did the same to a weaker guy, the scene plays out the same as a powerful lady and the frail lady, or a strong lady and smaller guy.)
Here we go, someone mentions how an issue affects men and it’s instantly shut down with “well women have it worse”.
Just like men do to women online. It’s almost like we’re an absurd ape species that didn’t evolve to appropriately handle the social tech we devised for ourselves. So much of online fighting is fake as hell too. What a stupid fucking ape creature we are.
I feel like with men’s issues it’s more consistent, but as a man I probably notice it a lot more so who knows.
You must have missed my last paragraph. It doesn’t matter the sex/gender of the person, but it does matter who holds the natural power/advantage in any situation. Being stronger, taller, quicker, larger, heavier, speaking first, and speaking louder are all innate advantages and any person can find themselves being any of those things depending on the situation they are in.
My pointing out that those are two separate situations and not equivalent experiences due to differing power dynamics is in no way shutting down or stopping the conversation. It is rather making space for there to be a better comparison to be made.
Being told to smile is inherently sexual in its nature, it’s a demand to look prettier for the pleasure of the viewer/speaker. The statement is usually said unprovoked and carries the hint of threat from the speaker as they have set themselves up as the person with the power by simply making the demand first. The one being catcalled is automatically on the defense and has to choose to cooperate or refuse, both answers may come with a future physical/sexual threat. In this scenario you are prey and the predator’s eye is on you (maybe for food, maybe for play).
Someone asking if you’re mad, assumes they know you in some way even if just in passing. It also assumes you have some power that they fear your anger/upset and are hoping to mitigate it to protect themselves if possible. That question can come from a from a sincere place or an insincere one, but it really isn’t a sexually inclined question. The question can be asked as concern for you, concern for themselves, or both. The person asking has the power of speaking first which forces you to respond -agree, refute, or ignore the statement. The asker then gives over the power to you, allowing you to direct the rest of the conversation with your response. In this situation you are the predator and the asker is the prey that is hoping that you already have a full belly.
Lastly in my previous comment I validated their experiences and even shared my own struggles with the particular issue they mentioned. I also acknowledged and empathized with the frustrations that come with the given situations.
So what’s a better situational comparison of ‘you are prey and the predator’s eye is on you’?
The whole idea that it would be a demand is baffling to me.
Someone asking if you’re mad, assumes they know you in some way even if just in passing.
Nope. It’s the same way as people might think someone looks happy, we just look at faces and try to interpret their emotions. And some people’s faces set off the “looks angry” assumption.
In this situation you are the predator and the asker is the prey that is hoping that you already have a full belly.
Taking the stance that someone else is a predator based on how they look and you might be their prey. And not only that, saying that aloud to them. Can be pretty damn insulting.
-The comic literally states that he should smile more and that is a demand on how he should be. If he wanted to smile he would.
-The angry face is a thing that I acknowledged and agreed with, and said I had experience with in my first comment. Please re-read for better comprehension.
-My sentence"…even if just in passing" implies the inclusion of someone who you may not otherwise interact with. Strangers who talk to you are inherently in a more intimate category than strangers who don’t talk/interact to you.
-Saying that the people in the situations given are in positions akin to predator and prey is an apt analogy. It is not saying someone turns into a bear and the other a fish. There are many shifts of power during conversations and not acknowledging the natural and situational power dynamics does everyone a disservice.
I never once said that someone’s looks were the reason they were the predator/prey in a situation.
The comic literally states that he should smile more and that is a demand on how he should be.
“If you like X you should visit Y, you’d probably really like it”
“How dare you demand I visit Y!”
LOL
Ahhh my gf keeps asking me if I’m fine. I guess I just have a resting sad face or something.
I get it at least once a week when at work.
It was pretty funny when women thought “how would you feel if” would work in this case. They clearly didn’t know how starved of positive attention men are.
Yeah, no one has ever told me that I had a beautiful smile and that I should smile more… I never get compliments and very rarely get any appreciation. I helped a friend of a friend fix electrical issues saving him thousands that he didn’t have? Just a generic “thanks.” The guy offered to feed me because his wife was getting chinese but his wife didn’t get me any and they just ate their food while I worked.
Where I live 12 beers or a bottle of vodka is the standard payment
positive attention
So starved of positive attention that you mistake creepy demands for compliments?
you look cute
Definitely a compliment
you should smile more
Dunno what the intention was, I read it as “you look cute when you smile” but could be “you would look (even) cuter if you smiled”. If it’s either of those, that’s going to my compliment book.
And yes, men are famine level starved of positive attention. So this “creepy demand” (demand??) defintely would count for me.
Last week people in Lemmy were arguing that someone knocking on your doorstep was akin to being a hostage, so yeah, they would clearly think of that as “demand”
Lemmy is full of the lowest common denominator spurred on by trolls. Nothing the collective said should ever be taken as serious without your own further research off platform.
sighs…I know, I know
A lady told me I have nice eyes once. That was 20+ years ago and I’ve never forgotten that shit.
I had the same thing happen while I was working as a cashier. Turns out she was actually scamming me, they used footage of it happening to train new people.
Big oof
Same. She just kept staring into my eyes. In fact I think I was told the same thing by 3 different girls.
Same. I was at an eye hospital and they wouldn’t stop staring.
It’s about it happening to you once every 10 years or once an hour.
Once an hour sounds awesome but I suppose a person dying of thirst would think that a person drowning was having a great time.
I have never had a woman hit on me, but a gay man did once and the memory of that warms my heart. (I’m not gay.)
But does your now husband know?
Oh shit I accidentally married a dude
person dying of thirst would think that a person drowning was having a great time.
This happens in Dune. Paul explains the concept of swimming to his gf and she says he’s making stuff up.
This post is discussing flirts per hour
Getting complimented once every ten years sounds awesome. It’s hard to even imagine once an hour
This isn’t a compliment.
Imagine getting a compliment as a man lmao 🤣, shit be wild yo
Men die of thirst in a desert, women die of thirst in an ocean
This here ^ is the full context.
Before doing bar-back work getting a hit on by a woman who I didn’t find attractive was still a nice confidence boost because it only happened rarely.
But doing bar-back work clearing away glasses from tables and wiping them down I got hit on so much by drunken women in bachelorette party after bachelorette party that it became really uncomfortable. Then came the inappropriate touching. That was not fun.
Before that job I had heard what women experience on a night out and had only seen it from a 3rd person perspective. But after that job I understand better what women are having to put up with regularly.
This honestly adds up cause the ocean is saltwater
A gay guy once told me my glasses were cute.
Im married to a woman. But in that moment, I considered my new life as his man wife.
Clearly a man’s man
Wasn’t this basically a bobs burger episode lol
In Pony Equestria mares compliment YOU!
You look cute! - nice
You should smile more. - wtf
Tbh she’s probably right, I have resting bitch face at best or maybe smol depression at worst lol, it would probably help me develop new interpersonal relationships now that all my friends are dead (mostly OD) or moved (because they didn’t want to OD.)
REAL FUN being the only person you know who avoided heroin/fent!
Wow, that must be hard. I hope you’ll find some nice drug-free friends.
Thanks lol me too. (Fine with the right drugs though, for the record. Weed is ok in my book!)
I’d just look around to see who else is in on the joke
Who hurt you
A woman once told me that. Oh boy, did that stick with me for a long time.
A girl also told me I have nice eyes during high school. That was literally one of the bitterly few highlights of high school for me.
I wore a colorful shirt at school and a random girl told me she liked it. I wore colorful shirts every day at school for 2 whole years.
The disconnect between women and men is sad. Women say soo many things with the best of intentions, that just end up cutting way too deep and vice versa.
Pretty sure would smile a lot more if they received more positive attention ngl.
Someone told me I had an ugly smile once and I am still insecure about my smile to this day. If people told me I had a beautiful smile and that I should smile more, I think that would be amazing. I would be surprised, but really happy.
The person who told you that has an ugly personality.
Hey @[email protected] you have a beautiful smile! 😁
Aw, thank you
That’s the experience for some neurodivergent or somehow naïve women the first time. I was one of them (I thought older men were being kind with my teenage self). Then you start getting the same comment again and again: it often feels insincere. You start suspecting and learning about all the ways [mostly] men can be manipulating or even dangerous in the streets. It starts becoming bittersweet; you learn to ignore it just in case it’s the people with bad intentions. You know that, if someone really wants to tell you that you’re pretty or something, they will make an effort to make you feel safer too. And then, you are in your twenties and those men don’t talk to you nearly as often, and it’s a relief. As a heterosexual/bisexual woman, you hope that the rest of men can see you as more than a pretty body: a human with dreams, hobbies sense of humor, intelligence, whatever. Sometimes it’s scary to know that many men don’t, but many others do, so… yeah, my leftism hopes it gets better, as with many other social issues.
That’s my experience.
No it’s just as infuriating and it’s always been one of the complaints women bring up that I always remind them is not just a women problem.
Rbf can seriously negatively impact your life. Especially if you’re already physically imposing.
I searched what’s rbf and lmao at the result
Imagine being used as the example photo for resting bitch face
Mines even worse than that. To quote an old coworker “He looks like he’s about to stab everyone in the room all the time”
?? I think I misunderstood your comment, did you said that its not cool to be cat called as a man?
I’m specifically referring to the phrase “you should smile more” not cat calling in general.
Oh I get it thx for the response
Old ladies at my first job would tell this to Male interns all the time.
Productivity at 130%
Middle management hates this simple trick!
