We live in a society in which a person can attract attention by finding something to complain about, especially if that person is a woman and she’s complaining about sexism.
The BBC posted a video from a woman claiming that it was sexist for a male clerk to jokingly ask her to smile when she tried to buy a pack of gum. The horror! What an awful, oppressive life she must lead for that to have happened.
Stop. Just stop. People don’t like to see other people unhappy, and simply telling someone who looks unhappy to smile is one of many natural responses. As someone who was diagnosed with depression at a young age, and who naturally has Resting Bitch Face (when your normal, emotionless expression actually looks angry or sad), I’ve heard this many, many times.
And I couldn’t care less. Actually, the fact that someone noticed I don’t look happy and made an effort to cheer me up in some small way usually does result in a smile.
The woman in the BBC video suggests that the male clerk wouldn’t have told another adult man the same thing. Perhaps not. More likely, the clerk may have asked the man if everything was alright, or the man may not have shown that he was having a bad day.
The idea that women are the only ones to go through things is getting old. Men get asked what their problem is, if they’re alright and what’s wrong all the time. If I see one of my male friends sulking sometimes I tell them to smile, because it’s a common response to seeing someone who looks upset.
Another woman in the BBC video claimed that telling a woman (no mention of telling a man) to smile is a “microagression,” something that seems insignificant but offends another person (often an incredibly sensitive person who finds no joy in life).
Thankfully, not everyone who responded to the women’s complaints agreed with them. One person on Facebook wrote that they didn’t think the clerk did anything wrong and had no way to know the woman was in a bad mood, so “Don’t take it so personally.”
Another person said the clerk “was just trying to be a nice Samaritan and make a persons [sic] day better.”
We all know that complaints over insignificant things like this are just a way for some people to get attention (and it obviously works). I usually try to ignore these people, but sometimes the whining is just too much.
Western Culture is not the hotbed of sexism that some perpetually outraged people would like to claim that it is. Focusing on trivial matters detracts from the real people who have real problems in the world. And it shows just how selfish so many privileged people are.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
