Best response to Smile luv, it might never happen!

My usual reply is Why?

That normally stumps the troglodytes.

I've always had serious bitchy resting face so I used to get this a lot when younger, however bearing in mind I was a Nurse 95% of the time I had very little reason to smile on on own time. I was Mary fricking sunshime while on duty (where appropriate).

Best/worst response to this shit was a punch in the face.

We had a porter who was constantly saying this to female patients/visitors, several complained, several of us complained on thier behalfs.

We got the 'we'll have a word' 'He's only being friendly' 'It's only banter' How I hate that word..............

The thing was if a woman didn't respond or respond negatively, there was always a muttered comment; usually along the line of fucking bitch/ miserable cunt.

Anyway he did his smile it might never happen to a woman coming out of the bereavement office, yes really, and when she didn't respond muttered the usual comment; however her husband was attempting to catch up with her and heard the comment.

He asked him to repeat what he'd said which he did with a laugh, I believe the exact words were 'I just told the miserable bitch to smile, women eh?'

Husband punched him twice before someone intervened.

Sad that it took violence for this micro aggression to be taken seriously.

But considering the circumstances he got away very very lightly

YetAnotherSpartacus I'm not saying there aren't plenty who are quite used to getting a scowl in response, and probably quite enjoy that too, because if you fail to smile at them you are automatically a stuck up bitch and pissing you off is therefore also a good thing. Which is why my favoured response (not that it has happened to me for a while) is a deliberate unfocusing of my eyes and look through them as if they're not there.

As a teenager I got told to 'smile' a lot, and even though I was a fairly aware proto-feminist, I responded with a bashful smile almost every time, because my conditioning was strong. I still want to go back and tell the arseholes off.

Can I briefly be a woman under 50 again, merely for the lasting pleasure of saying to one of these dickheads "dance minion, so that your antics may please me"? :D

Lizzieoak - me too, please! (I am now wearing my menopausal cloak-of-invisibility).

Noted for next time i will flutter my eyelashes say shucks my day has been made 😂

fldsmdr - Well fuck me. I've failed the femininity test yet again because I had no idea they were actually serious!

Is it just a power-play or are we actually expected to respond?

You are expected to smile and look pretty and give them an ego boost. I wouldn't say it's necessarily a conscious power play but it definitely shows a level of entitlement that they are owed the interaction and a positive response.

Some of them may even believe they have managed to cheer you up by making you smile, but again, they do it for the warm fuzzies that idea gives them, and lack any insight into what does and doesn't make other people (women) happy.

Trouble with the 'somebody died' etc comments is that by saying 'smile' they've done a power trip and by telling them personal information you have, in a wierd way, indulged that. They are just total creeps who should be completely ignored IMO.

I have been known to point out I am off to a funeral. This was actually true.

I've always wanted to say "I'd never leave my husband for less than £300k a year and, looking at your clothes, you can't afford me so FUCK OFF" but I always forget to say the first bit.

Yes, I find that spitting out FUCK OFF usually does the trick..especially when I'm out with my DD as she then starts to PHSL 😆😅😂

It just did is my response or i glare at them it doesnt matter if you think you have a resting bitchy face they really shouldnt be commenting and a woman has never said it to me always men i am not sure whythey say it but its bloody annoying.

I've always wondered what they expect us to say... ??? Is it just a power-play or are we actually expected to respond?

Shit. I didn't realise this was a "thing". It happened to me a fair few times when I was younger. I usually just gave them I really confused look I think. Because of course I was baffled. Brain told me that I was just getting on with my life, thinking about stuff, and that I was nothing to do with them so why did they care whether I smiled or not? And I couldn't work out why they would care or why it mattered (it was always men of course).

I wish I wish I wish I had mastered the art of a good "fuck off" at the age of 16. The DDs (8 and 10) have just gleefully discovered the word. Obviously they have both had the full lecture about not using it, but I am secretly quite glad that they now have this word and I will, in due course, be teaching them to make use of it properly .

I had it once from a taxi driver. I did think that as I'd just booked him to go to the hospital, he might have guessed at the odds of it not being for a good reason. I said, "my father just died," and didn't speak again.

Twatish man: "smile"
Me: "Why should i?"
Twatish man: "I duno... Just smile"
Me:

Most of these replies don't really create that come back satisfaction we are after.
Unfortunately once someone has said that to you they have sort of taken the glory already.
I think fuck off said in a rather bored tone is as good as your gonna get.

" "dance minion, so that your antics may please me"? "

love it

This is a bit different- smiling during exercise helps to release tension so here would allow a deeper stretch

Funny how he has never told any of the boys to smile then.

The instructor of a class my dds and I do together told my 7-year-old to 'Smile!' in the middle of a stretching exercise at our last class. I had to make do with frowning at him at the time, but if he does it again I might have to explain to him what a dickish thing it is to do and why it's so depressing that it happened to my 7-year-old.

This is a bit different- smiling during exercise helps to release tension so here would allow a deeper stretch

I used to get this a lot as a child. I was particularly downcast looking due to facial scarring. I used to stare at people until they looked away. I also used to walk deliberately into them so they had to move out of my way.

You can't notice the scarring now and I don't care who stares at me now, as a plus.

Its only ever been said to me by men I find a bit threatening. Also it got a lot more common when I had a child in a pram - I assume I looked vulnerable.

Clever comebacks aren't as important to me as getting away and keeping safe. Usually I don't acknowledge it at all.

One group of men said to me and my friends "smile girls" and we looked then they said "fucking smile cunts"....

Well as a 16 year old girl who has had this said to me many times my usual response is "it'll happen to you mate".

Once I gave a forthright full frontal stare and eye roll, and a sighed loudly. His mate elbowed him as if to say yeah, you twat.

Normally I give an unimpressed eye roll and it tends to put them on the spot.

I would love to say something like "Change your own ugly face first" or
"Why would I smile for a twat like you?"
But I don't want to cause too much public scene.

It's so annoying though. One of my real hates in life. "Smile" as a command. It's fucking insulting.