Don't Forget Your Smile!
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Come on, give me a smile!
You'd look prettier if you smiled!
Let me turn that frown upside down!
You should smile more!
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Why so sad?
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You dropped something! Here it is, it's your smile!
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That'll be $10.32 and a smile!
Don't waste that pretty face!
Nice ass!
Hey, Baby!
Smile, bitch!
Hey bitch! I'm talkin' to you!
Where you goin', beautiful?
Stuck up whore!
Shake it, baby!
Gimme some sugar!
Small Running Title
Where's your daddy, little girl?
You on the rag, bitch?
Why I wrote Smile !
I wrote Smile! first and foremost because I was tired of hearing it.
I also wrote Smile! because somebody had too. It's hard to find women who have not been subjected to commentary from men in public places. These comments are not "compliments." They are not "advice." They are not "jokes." They are not "teasing," They are not attempts to "cheer us up." They are designed deliberately to demean, harass, denigrate, mock, condescend, undermine, insult, belittle, and bully us into subordination. They are designed to remind us that they are watching us, to warn us to stay in our boxes. Smile policing and street harassment are not about "looking pretty" or sex appeal. They are about power. They are affirmations that women's place will always be first and foremost to please and entertain men. They remind us that our presence in public is allowed only to entertain them - a purpose to which any agenda of our own is secondary.
I wrote Smile! because I don't believe we should have to put up with comments like these from strange men:
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- Whatch readin', sweetheart?
- (at the bus stop) So, where are you headed this fine morning?
- Smile! Why so sad?
- (on a bus) So, who's the lucky fella this seat is saved for? (seat is vacant, not "saved.")
- (in the parking lot of a shopping center) Hey! Whatcha got for me in that bag? (Laughter)
- (in a cafeteria) So, it's buttered carrots today then?
- (In the cold) Hey! Why so fast? Did you forget your long undies this morning? (Laughter)
- I'd just like to thank you so much for wearing that top!
- (At the gym) Slow down! Not too much now. I know he's gotta like some curves! (Laughter)
- (While being ignored after any of the above) Hey! Look at me! I'm talking to you!
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About the Author
Unlike the heroines of Smile! I don't live in a big city. I don't have to contend with cat-callers. There was a time, however, when I did live in a large urban environment. It was the 1980's and I was part of the occupation force in Berlin. It was my first time "in the big city" and I had to learn the hard way about what that meant for females all over the world. Every time I ventured off the Air Force base at Tempelhof Central Airport by myself, I would encounter a maze of comments, come-ons, and what I called "tails." More than once I had to come all the way back to the base to "shave off my tail" at the guarded entrance gate.
Though I left the big city behind many years ago, I do still live as a female on planet Earth. While there may be no cat-callers in suburbia, there are certainly plenty of commentators deployed out here to remind us of our place in their world.
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Beverly Garside lives with her husband in Maryland. She is also the author of the graphic novel I and You.
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