That’s the experience for some neurodivergent or somehow naïve women the first time. I was one of them (I thought older men were being kind with my teenage self). Then you start getting the same comment again and again: it often feels insincere. You start suspecting and learning about all the ways [mostly] men can be manipulating or even dangerous in the streets. It starts becoming bittersweet; you learn to ignore it just in case it’s the people with bad intentions. You know that, if someone really wants to tell you that you’re pretty or something, they will make an effort to make you feel safer too. And then, you are in your twenties and those men don’t talk to you nearly as often, and it’s a relief. As a heterosexual/bisexual woman, you hope that the rest of men can see you as more than a pretty body: a human with dreams, hobbies sense of humor, intelligence, whatever. Sometimes it’s scary to know that many men don’t, but many others do, so… yeah, my leftism hopes it gets better, as with many other social issues.
That’s my experience.
This would actually require dweebs leaving their basements.
It would require a woman who wasn’t convinced she’d be stalked for the next six months.
I still remember the compliment i got about my eyebrows back in high school. I got super flustered and ran out of the class. I have a love/cringe relationship with that moment.
A woman once told me that. Oh boy, did that stick with me for a long time.
A girl also told me I have nice eyes during high school. That was literally one of the bitterly few highlights of high school for me.
I wore a colorful shirt at school and a random girl told me she liked it. I wore colorful shirts every day at school for 2 whole years.
women don’t do that, because they subconsciously know like 80% of men (including me) would see that as an opportunity for a pickup line, like “I would, if you went out with me” or “a hug/kiss would cheer me up” or some other borderline creepy stuff.
It’s not exactly a pickup line but it is expressing interest. And that’s how a lot of men use the line.
Telling someone they should “smile more” isn’t expressing interest. It’s a very weird demand. If you’d like to express interest in someone please consider a different approach.
No, it’s the “you look cute” part. As a man, I rarely ever get compliments. A “you look cute” would make my entire day. And I would smile at that!
The disconnect between women and men is sad. Women say soo many things with the best of intentions, that just end up cutting way too deep and vice versa.
Pretty sure would smile a lot more if they received more positive attention ngl.
Someone told me I had an ugly smile once and I am still insecure about my smile to this day. If people told me I had a beautiful smile and that I should smile more, I think that would be amazing. I would be surprised, but really happy.
The person who told you that has an ugly personality.
Hey @Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de you have a beautiful smile! 😁
It was pretty funny when women thought “how would you feel if” would work in this case. They clearly didn’t know how starved of positive attention men are.
Yeah, no one has ever told me that I had a beautiful smile and that I should smile more… I never get compliments and very rarely get any appreciation. I helped a friend of a friend fix electrical issues saving him thousands that he didn’t have? Just a generic “thanks.” The guy offered to feed me because his wife was getting chinese but his wife didn’t get me any and they just ate their food while I worked.
Where I live 12 beers or a bottle of vodka is the standard payment
positive attention
So starved of positive attention that you mistake creepy demands for compliments?
you look cute
Definitely a compliment
you should smile more
Dunno what the intention was, I read it as “you look cute when you smile” but could be “you would look (even) cuter if you smiled”. If it’s either of those, that’s going to my compliment book.
And yes, men are famine level starved of positive attention. So this “creepy demand” (demand??) defintely would count for me.
Last week people in Lemmy were arguing that someone knocking on your doorstep was akin to being a hostage, so yeah, they would clearly think of that as “demand”
A lady told me I have nice eyes once. That was 20+ years ago and I’ve never forgotten that shit.
I had the same thing happen while I was working as a cashier. Turns out she was actually scamming me, they used footage of it happening to train new people.
Big oof
Same. She just kept staring into my eyes. In fact I think I was told the same thing by 3 different girls.
Same. I was at an eye hospital and they wouldn’t stop staring.
You look cute! - nice
You should smile more. - wtf
Tbh she’s probably right, I have resting bitch face at best or maybe smol depression at worst lol, it would probably help me develop new interpersonal relationships now that all my friends are dead (mostly OD) or moved (because they didn’t want to OD.)
REAL FUN being the only person you know who avoided heroin/fent!
Wow, that must be hard. I hope you’ll find some nice drug-free friends.
Thanks lol me too. (Fine with the right drugs though, for the record. Weed is ok in my book!)
I’d just look around to see who else is in on the joke
Who hurt you
Old ladies at my first job would tell this to Male interns all the time.
Productivity at 130%
Middle management hates this simple trick!
No it’s just as infuriating and it’s always been one of the complaints women bring up that I always remind them is not just a women problem.
Rbf can seriously negatively impact your life. Especially if you’re already physically imposing.
I searched what’s rbf and lmao at the result
Imagine being used as the example photo for resting bitch face
Mines even worse than that. To quote an old coworker “He looks like he’s about to stab everyone in the room all the time”
?? I think I misunderstood your comment, did you said that its not cool to be cat called as a man?
I’m specifically referring to the phrase “you should smile more” not cat calling in general.
Oh I get it thx for the response
