Women are looked on to be these ethereal, fragile creatures who’s only job is to pick flowers and looked beautiful at all times — all of that with a HUGE smile on their faces. Men, and even women, have been telling women to smile for years and years. They do this because we have been trained as a society to think that women should never show that they have the capacity to be anything less than perfectly content and beautiful. If you’re not smiling, you’re unhappy, and therefore ugly.
Makes sense, right?
Most recently, there have been incidences where men told Hillary Clinton that she should have been smiling more during her victory speech after the March 15th primaries. We see this a lot, but particularly with women of power. These women are taking on historically “male-ruled” careers, especially Hillary Clinton, but they are given different expectations. No one has ever told Donald Trump or Ted Cruz to smile more while giving his speeches. Jessica Valenti, a writer from the guardian, wrote an article on this issue concerning Clinton.
Women are tired of being told to smile while watching their male counterparts get away with things they could never dream of.
Donald Trump is known for being sexist. He has said numerous comments about women like this quote:
“It’s certainly not groundbreaking news that the early victories by the women on ‘The Apprentice’ were, to a very large extent, dependent on their sex appeal.” (How To Get Rich, 2004)
Or better yet, this one:
“You know, it doesn’t really matter what [the media] writes as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.” (Esquire, 1991)
Trump is able to literally reduce women to a “piece of ass” with getting little to no flack for it, and if he does, he receives it years later! This man is running to become the President of the United States, and people are concerned if Clinton is smiling or not??
Joe Scarborough, an MSNBC reporter, tweeted this on March 15th, directing it to Clinton:
“Smile. You just had a big night” is so much more demeaning than it may seem on the surface. As I said earlier, it’s a common sexist ideal that women should be happy and look it 110% of the time. If you’re not smiling, you’re not doing it right. Clinton often speaks about serious issues during her speeches like the rising threat of ISIS, the dangers Donald Trump would bring if he wins the presidency, and the issue of immigration. These topics are not something one should really be smiling about.
I’m sure a lot of you have yourself or heard someone else say this to someone, it’s a really common thing, but now that you’re aware of it, don’t let yourself say it. Think about why you’re saying this; why do women need to smile? We have to remember that women have control over their own bodies, emotions, and actions. They are not here to have something “nice” to look at.
Julia Catena says
Wow this post really opened my eyes to something I’ve never really thought about. Now that you mention it, I have noticed that women are expected to smile and when men don’t smile, no one comments. It just seems normal for a woman to always seem happy. It’s kind of sad that looking happy all the time is how women are expected to look even if this is not what we’re feeling.
kkc5243 says
YES– I don’t think a lot of people understand how annoying/ offensive it is to tell women to smile all the time! People (including women, obviously) aren’t always happy. It’s unfair to expect them to smile all the time just to appear more appealing to the casual observer. I’ve seen things recently about reporters, other politicians, etc. telling Clinton to smile and I found it so ridiculous and demeaning, so I’m glad you wrote about this!
Arianna Hilk says
This just goes to prove that most of the time, women are just seen for how they look. People are more concerned with women looking good, rather than what the woman is actually saying. Treatment between men and women is usually very different, clearly shown when Clinton was told to smile after winning a primary. Yet, no one has ever told Trump or even Obama to smile, right? Yikes.