Judge People Everywhere. Even In A Supermarket

[Arielkay]

Blargh...that's what happened to me the other day going into the Safeway. I didn't smile at the Salvation Army bell ringer and she snarkily said, "At least you could smile." After I realized what she'd said and that it was actually directed at me, I went out and gave her a piece of my mind. I don't need a representative of a "religious" anti-gay organization giving me crap just before Christmas because I didn't smile at her. Same goes for this stupid article.

ETA: I was on the front page of the Austin American-Statesman twice back in the 1980s. Both times I had a stupid, distant look on my face. It's just the way I am.

The Salvation Army is anti-gay? Oh, good, I don't have to feel bad about being too cheap to drop change in their cup.

[Arielkay]

Yup, the "smile" thing is an entitled, rude, sexist ploy to shape a complete stranger to your liking. I know someone who was told to "smile" while she was walking home from a funeral. How she didn't deck the guy I'll never know.

I now respond to a stranger saying "Smile!" with "Fuck off". It's just as rude, and it makes me feel a lot better. :D

I like that one. Extra points if said person is uber religious.

[GolightlyGrrl]

I was at Whole Foods this past Sunday, and not nearly enough people were smiling like a bunch of goons, probably because the Packers lost.

[Witsec7]

The Salvation Army is anti-gay? Oh, good, I don't have to feel bad about being too cheap to drop change in their cup.

Pal of mine, a very liberal xtian minister got a job with them, high on up on their food chain. He was leading a convocation and asked the attendees to pay for gay equality/marriage and then concluded with a Buddhist quote. He stepped down from the podium and was immediately fired.

[BoomerLynn]

When I'm wandering the aisles of my neighborhood supermarket, I am not smiling. I may, in fact, even have an "expression of troubled self-absorption" on my face (I have no idea, but it's possible).

That's because half the time I've forgotten my list and am trying to remember everything I came to buy, and therefore do not have the brainwidth required for smiling. And even when I've remembered my list, I'm un-smiley because some head-office corporate geniuses (who obviously don't have to shop for their own groceries) have decided that constantly rearranging the store--so nothing is ever where it was the last time I bought it--is a brilliant idea. So yes, I am often troubled and absorbed in my own thoughts while in the supermarket, and not smiling.

And I notice his choice of adjectives to describe the shoppers he observed: "healthy, beautiful, and very expensively groomed." Now, granted, in San Francisco that can just as easily describe men as well as women, but somehow I suspect that better than 80% of the "people" he observed were, in fact, female people, which to a guy like this makes the lack of smiles even more egregious. Because women, especially if they're beautiful, are supposed to smile.

As for the Smile Brigade, I've only rarely had to deal with them, and that was mostly when I was in my early 20s (I do have kind of a "don't fuck with me" aura when I'm out in public, and generally get left alone by idiots and busybodies). The last time it happened was maybe five years ago, and when the told me, "You really ought to smile!" my instantaneous, wholly unpremeditated response was "You really ought to bend over and suck your own dick." The look of ABJECT HORROR on the dude's face was priceless, and I'm glad he scurried away as quickly as he could because I was having a very hard time keeping a poker face.

Bahahahaha! I would have loved to see the expression on that guy's face. And yes, it is incredibly rude to tell a complete stranger to smile. As for the article, did it occur to the guy that maybe none of those people particularly like grocery shopping. I loathe it. I hate being in crowded stores with people going in several different directions at once, while simultaneously trying to read over a shopping list and finding the items on the shelves. It gives me a headache (which is why I make my husband do it *laughs evilly*). The few times that I do wind up having to do it, I am certainly not grinning like an idiot the whole time. I am trying to find what I need so I can get the hell outta there as quickly as possible.

[genericJname]

"Fleeing suicide" is so bad?

I have fled suicide with medication before too. It hasn't prevented me from pursuing happiness.

[Beb]

I just escaped from the bowels of hell, otherwise known as Walmart, and believe me, although I didn't check a mirror, I have no doubt my face didn't have a big smile on it. If it had, I would have considered myself certifiably insane.