Apparently, today is World Smile Day. No, I didn’t either. Of course, it took a pathetic white male to come up with the idea in the first place. In 1966, Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massuchusetts, designed the ‘Smiley Face’. Ball’s artwork arguably inspired the multi-trillion dollar emoji industry, but I confess that it triggers me every time I see it, representing as it does a self-satisfied smug person with white privilege.
In 1999, Ball came up with another idea, which was to have a “World Day” celebrating the upward curving of the mouth. According to official World Smile Day publicity:
“Let’s see those pearly whites — it’s World Smile Day! It’s celebrated on the first Friday of October every year...Ball’s ultimate goal was to inspire the world to dedicate one day each year to smiling and performing kind acts in the community. The day was first celebrated in 1999 and we’ve been grinning on this special Friday every year since. Ball’s smiley face has become one of the most recognizable symbols of goodwill and good cheer and his hope was for us to portray those qualities, too. No matter the destruction, racism, and sadness going on in the world, today is a day to share some compassion to help us stress a little less and smile a little more!”
Enough already, I think I may have just vomited slightly. Just how the Hell can a facial grin even possibly come close to removing ever-present concerns about ‘destruction, racism and sadness’? It can’t! Every second, minute, hour and day should be a constant battle against so many injustices like homophobia, Islamaphobia, transphobia. There simply isn’t and shouldn’t be enough time to smile.
Although some may people may choose to show their ‘pearly whites’ (a racist expression if ever there was one), you can count me out of this. In the first place, World Smile Day is a deep source of oppression and discrimination against individuals with Moebius Syndrome. As AT readers will be aware, Moebius Syndome is a rare disorder characterized by lifetime facial paralysis. Moebius Syndrome survivors are unable to smile or frown, or even move their eyes from side to side. World Smile Day is a grotesque form of violence against the Moebius Syndrome community. Every time someone laughs, smiles or even titters in amusement, they are basically raping and/ or inflicting physical violence on a Moebius Syndome victim.
So, sure, go ahead and smile on World Smile Day if you want to. Just count me out of your rape fantasies!
As the featured image on this article shows, apologists for smiling have come up with six ‘fun facts’ to justify their vile actions. At first, each of the ‘fun facts’ might sound convincing but it doesn’t take much to rebut each and every one of them:
FUN FACT 1: “Smiling helps your immune system”
AT REBUTTAL: The immune system plays an important role in combatting diseases. This might sound like a good thing but it’s what keeps privileged white people alive. Since these are the ones doing most of the self-satisfied smiling, we certainly don’t need their immune systems boosting!
FUN FACT 2: “Smiles relieve stress by releasing endorphins”
AT REBUTTAL: Whose endorphins are we talking about here? Surely not those of the Moebius Syndrome community who recoil in (expressionless) terror at other people’s smiles. If you are looking for a way of feeling relaxed, there are plenty of legal ways to get high without causing harm to others.
FUN FACT 3: “It’s easier to smile than to frown”
AT REBUTTAL: Says who? I can’t remember the last time I managed to smile (actually, I can, it was when I heard Trump was going to get impeached) but I frown and sneer many hundreds of times a day. I’m a master of the frown and can put down a right-wing extremist at 50 yards with a killer stare.
FUN FACT 4,6 “It takes…53 muscles to smile…there are 15 different types of smiles’
AT REBUTTAL: Are we supposed to be impressed by statistics? If so, here’s my own impressive statistic: there are over 100 genders,with new genders being discovered every day. As for ’15 different types of smile’, I can frown in over 50 different ways so go suck on that.
FUN FACT 5: Babies are born with the ability to smile
AT REBUTTAL: Perhaps, but when they are taught about the tyranny of the patriarchy, slavery, racism etc. we will soon wipe the smiles off their chubby little faces. To paraphase a well-known Jesuit expression “Give me the child until xe is seven and I will give you the progressive social justice worker”.
On this oppressive day when so much of the world is being coerced into smiling against their better judgement, stand with me and sneer.
Absolutely no white males should ever be smiling when there is so much oppression and suffering in the world because of THEIR actions. How about feeling some guilt for all of the wrongs you’ve committed? How about showing some remorse for all of the people you’ve enslaved and raped? Wipe that smug. self-satisfied smile off your face and hold your head in shame!
Smiling is a vice that took me many years to cleanse from my system. Some people struggle with alcohol or drugs, but for me it was happiness. Some warm sunny mornings I would wake up with a sense of…almost joy, and then I would realise just how much oppression my white privilege has caused and things would be better again. How I despised myself back then, and how much progress I have made since. My life is now devoid of joy and I’m a more virtuous person for it.
Smiling while white ( ‘facecrime’, as the Judges would have it) is not acceptable behaviour. If you see a white male microagressive smile, punch them in the face and have Sarah Beattie blow your whistle!.
?mod=1548085539
#accredited-times-pick
Smiling while white should be a capital offense.
Because you are a dipshit Muslim, whose God “revealed” that the sun sets in a muddy pool of water.
Nuf said!
Do you know for a fact it DOESN’T set in a muddy pool of water? Unless you are a solar expert, I don’t think you have the right to close minds in this way.
Pretty sure!
snicker!
So why does it get dark at night then, genius? Obviously the sun is hiding in something.
Today we examine Muslim ablutions
Ablutions are an Arab custom of cleaning the body (including rinsing out the mouth) with a few splashes of water. This is due to living in the desert where water is scarce, and cleaning with sand is not a workable option, so Arabs need to conserve.
Mohammad MHRIH (may he rot in hell) used to wash up with water from the Well of Budha’ah. A well is a place where water “wells up” from the earth forming a pool. This well was used as a disposal site for the towns trash and was where, among other things dead dogs, shit, menstrual blood, and other disgusting things were tossed.
He literally washed his mouth out with Shit!
Sunan Abu Dawud 67—I heard that the people asked the Prophet of Allah: Water is brought for you from the well of Buda’ah. It is a well in which dead dogs, menstrual cloths and excrement of people are thrown. The Messenger of Allah replied: Verily water is pure and is not defiled by anything.
After washing out his mouth with shit, it is no wonder he liked water flavored with dead donkey
Sunan Ibn Majah 520—It was narrated that Jabir bin Abdullah said: “We came to a pond in which there was the carcass of a donkey, so we refrained from using the water until the Messenger of Allah came to us and said: ‘Water is not made impure by anything.’ Then we drank from it and gave it to our animals to drink, and we carried some with us.”
and his soup flavored with flies
Sahih al-Bukhari 5782—Allah’s Messenger said, “If a fly falls in the vessel of any of you, let him dip all of it (into the vessel) and then throw it [i.e. the fly] away, for in one of its wings there is a disease and in the other there is healing (antidote for it) i.e. the treatment for that disease.”
Truly I say to you, he was a messenger of the Lord of Flies (and Lies)
#islamophobic
Naming you trash dump after Buddha seems to show a lack of respect for other religions.
How can this be?
This is Great News for Flint, Michigan!
All those water-purification plants are unnecessary and a waste of money. Cities can save a lot by shutting them all down!
All Muslims should move there! Assuming they don’t get deported.
Well Indians are smart, and they bathe in and drink from the Ganges, which has dead animals and sewage flowing through it.
I smile because I’m cautiously euphemistic.
Pbier, you poor soul, you sound miserable. Have you considered euthanasia? Ed Buck may be able to help. You might write him, c/o Federal Bureau of Prisons, Los Angeles MDC.
I myself have infinite reasons for being happy. Near the top is that I’ve never appeared on The View, where phoney is the main criterion for admission. Want proof?
Your friend,
Ted
Long-tailed cats don’t smile whenever they’re in rooms full of rocking chairs.