The bitchy resting face (sometimes referred to as resting bitch face) has become discredited again. Do you regularly hear from complete strangers that you should laugh? Then you probably also suffer from this phenomenon.
The bitchy resting face was once again discredited by this column from the NY Times.
What is a bitchy resting face?
Bitchy resting face:when your face looks angry or emotionless when resting.
The whole BRF phenomenon started as a joke:American writer and comedian Taylor Orci made a parodying commercial for pseudomedical ailments, titled bitchy resting face. The video has since been viewed millions of times and a lot of American stars acquaintances suffer from this 'disease'.
That doesn't mean that some facial features can make you look cranky, angry, or bitchy, when you really aren't. Plastic surgeons also recognize this, who try to offer surgical solutions to this 'problem':the smile lift is an emerging trend in North Korea; a lift from the corners of the mouth upwards, with a permanent smile as the effect. And in the Netherlands too, thousands of women go under the knife for a friendlier appearance.
Erik Laban, plastic surgeon at the Velthuis Kliniek, explains why some women look more grumpy than others:'These women often have stronger lines around their mouths, or their upper eyelids droop a bit. Women who have little pigment in their eyes often frown more, they squeeze their eyes to block out the light. And in general, age has an effect on your appearance. The face will droop a little more.'
To solve this, his clients opt for an upper eyelid correction, botox or a facelift. The vast majority of women go for a different, less drastic solution:they put a fake smile on their face. In the last century, neurologist Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne discovered that only twenty percent of all smiles are genuine. He discovered that people use not only the muscle at the corners of their mouth, but also the circular eye muscle. A fake smile can easily be read from the eyes and yet we all regularly put on a fake smile. After all:laughing is the norm.
This standard appears to apply especially to women. Research by Yale professor and psychologist Marianne LaFrance shows that women are much more likely to laugh than men, especially when they know someone is watching them. The same researcher also notes that women are judged more harshly for a grumpy or empty look, resulting in the remark 'look a little happier'.
Agneta Fischer, emotion researcher at the University of Amsterdam, also sees a big difference between men and women. 'Women should be warm and gentle, that includes a smile. Men should have a serious face and exude dominance, with heavy low eyebrows and a pronounced jawline.'
But where does the ideal of a friendly female face come from?
Some scientists argue that women are naturally more empathetic and show their emotions more, which makes them laugh more often. This is supported by a study, which shows that the corners of the mouth are longer in women than in men; so a real woman's face shows her
emotions. Another explanation is that smiling is an expression of submission. This theory has roots in evolutionary psychology:among primates, female monkeys show their bare upper teeth much more often than male monkeys.
Whatever the cause, women who don't smile as often or who have a grumpy appearance often get it for their choosing. "Don't look so angry." But real friends and real men aren't put off by a bitchy resting face, right?
This is an adaptation of an article by Esma Linnemann from the March issue of Santé, volume 2014.
