PSA: Stop Using the Term ‘Resting Bitch Face’ Right Now

I get it, I don’t sit around smiling all day. I don’t even smile at every single person that looks my way, because sometimes my brain is too busy thinking about how not to have a nervous breakdown. It’s become so common to hear women described as having a RBF (never men, for the record), and it needs to stop.

I’ve been told countless times while walking down the sidewalk, minding my own business, that a ‘pretty girl like me should have a smile on her face’. Well, guess what? A pretty girl like me has a lot on her mind, and isn’t always a beaming ray of sunshine.

And even when I am perfectly happy or excited about my day, I still don’t always have a giant grin pasted on my face as I go about my activities, because that sounds exhausting.

I promise you that if someone opens the door for me, I smile and thank them. And if someone smiles at me from across the room, I return the gesture.

But if I’m sitting alone at a coffee shop and you happen to look my way and notice a lack of enthusiasm on my face, please don’t label me or my facial expressions. And when we finally do exchange words and you are pleasantly surprised that I am, in fact, a nice person with quite the sense of humor, please avoid the all-too- familiar “I thought you were a total bitch until we actually spoke!”.

It makes no sense. So please. Just stop.