misandry-mermaid:

samanticshift:

stoptellingwomentosmile:

through-the-pesticide:

archmasterjazzy:

tasa-arvoitus:

poppypicklesticks:

m-l-t:

iamelizah:

The artist behind the “Stop Telling Women to Smile” campaign wheat pasting in downtown Atlanta, GA.

This is such a vain campaign.

how self absorbed do you have to be 

I guess I’m an oppressor now because I tell people to smile if I see them sad.

In my case, smiling can actually help you feel better.

If being asked to smile is the worst thing to happen to women, I’ll take it. 

Because trying to be friendly is oppression. Ever tried to see things a bit more positively? Maybe someone asks you to smile because they want to try and cheer you up a bit? No, let’s just assume that all those evil gross men want you to smile for their entertainment only, because OBVIOUSLY every man is selfish like that (oh and women would never ever say things like that am I right?). 

*rubs temples*

“I tell people to smile if I see them sad.”
You assume that someone is sad. And sometimes, people do not appreciate you interjecting your assumptions onto them. Moving throughout the day with a neutral face does not mean you are sad. It means that you are simply not smiling.
If someone IS sad, being told to smile is not an automatic pick-me-up. Smiling is a natural reaction. People do not need to be told when to smile. It will happen easily and genuinely for them.

“If being asked to smile is the worst thing to happen to women, I’ll take it.”
Really? Do you really think this work is saying that being told to smile is the worst thing that happens to women?
 
“Maybe someone asks you to smile because they want to try and cheer you up a bit?”
Wrong. “Smile for me.” “You’d be prettier if you smiled.” “Let me get a smile.” etc. Those are not gestures of comfort. Those are attempts by the man asking (read: demanding) to make the woman more approachable for HIM. For her to be more physically appealing to HIM. 
It has nothing to do with her or her emotions. And that is what the title work is about. 

I find it really mind-boggling that I have to remind people that the title of the project has nothing to do with the act of smiling. It’s about the demand to smile. 

It’s also interesting that the Smile piece is the subject of this thread, when it isn’t the piece in the photo. STWTS encompasses a range of statements that address street harassment - including the one pictured, “Women Are Not Outside For Your Entertainment”. Why isn’t the conversation about that poster?
Being told to smile is one instance that fits into this larger context of the way women are treated in the public space. Each poster serves as that very same thing - one reaction to a particular type of treatment. All together, the posters are confronting a larger issue. People get stuck on the smile piece, when there is a larger issue that the posters are pointing to. 

-
TF

All the above. Incidentally, every person who’s told me to smile has been really aggressive and weird about it, like my lack of a smile was personally offensive to them.

The most recent instance that I was told to smile by a stranger in public, I had been told less than an hour before that my friend had attempted suicide and was currently in the hospital. So maybe think about that the next time you start to assume that other people’s faces and emotions are ANY OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS.