Why I Gotta Smile Though? (Resting B Face?) [video]
Storytime.
I’d just left my mailbox store and a guy at the counter decided he had the right to question my facial expressions. This happens to me often enough to be annoying, and I decided to jump on and make a video about it.
It was 20-something degrees outside that day. I was cold. Sometimes yo girl just don’t feel like grinning while walking around, it’s not my natural face. You can thank my momma for that. Sometimes yo girl is having a bad day. Sometimes yo girl just came from dropping off a 40-lb child at school and heaving a 20-lb wheelchair to boot. Sometimes yo girl is wearing a jacked up glove with the thumb missing!!!!!! (watch the video, it will make sense).
Don’t get me wrong … I’m a big smiler! Dare I say an “over-smiler”? So much so my friends and family have hit me with descriptors like “Colgate Smile” and “The Bubbly One”. I once asked my dad what he liked about me and on that list was “You have an amazing smile!” … but dagnabit
my neutral face is just not a smiling face.
What if I don’t feel like smiling? I don’t walk up to you and tell you to smile? (not you you reading the post … figurative you … you know what I mean). Why do you (mostly men and older women) feel you can govern other people’s facial expressions? Why. Shoo fly!
Anyhoodles, check out the video to see me in full vent immediately after said interaction:
Watch the video directly on YouTube.
Does this happen to you? Do you have “Resting B Face”?
Roshini Cope
Roshini Cope, aka Glamazini, is a life coach and video creator who gained a following for her natural hair tutorials, which evolved into authentic personal stories of healing with a consistent dash of humor. She is a black woman healing helping other black women heal, expand their self-awareness, reclaim their joy, and create the life they want. Work with Roshini π€β¨π€
2 Comments
Laura
ALL. OF. THIS. I usually just raise an eyebrow and try to control the urge to say something rude, while I think, “All I GOTTA do it stay black, pay taxes and die.” Ironically, people telling me to smile just moves my expression from my resting B face to my active B face, where I look at the speaker as if he (usually he) has completely taken leave of his senses.
LOL at your distraction with the coatless out in the cold. For me, there may even be a small amount of envy mixed in with my confusion when I look at my brethren/sistren of the Polar Bear tribe. Maybe they’re just trying to speak warmth into being. Manifesting springtime? Thinking warm thoughts? Hmmm…no? Still cold? Yeah, me too.
glamazini
I’M DEAD AT ACTIVE B FACE!!!!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!! *death*