You know how they say “smile and the world smiles with you?” Apparently, that’s all wrong, at least according to our dear old friend Vox Day (Theodore Beale). The fantasy author and human shitstain says this old saw needs a rewrite: smile, and the world’s true Alphas laugh at you. As Mr. Day-Beale explains:
Women say they resent it when men tell them to smile. And well they should. An instinctive smile, when one is not expressing pleasure or recognition, is a submissive gesture. This is why attractive women tend to smirk in response to the big goofy submissive smiles sent their way by lower status men.
And then, presumably, those sexy ladies will quickly excuse themselves and make a beeline for the nearest ALPHA fantasy author standing grimly in the corner, quietly judging everyone and thinking unkind thoughts about John Scalzi.
But what if you’re one of those big goofy smiling submissive dudes? How do you capture some of that broody Alpha magic for yourself? It’s simple: Don’t turn that frown upside down.
One easy way to increase your perceived level of alpha is to simply not smile at strangers. Instead, just reply with a nod or a pleasant word. One can be perfectly civil without grinning at everyone like an idiot, and it’s always interesting to see the difference it makes in people’s perceptions.
Just don’t overdo it, lest the ladies think you’re, for example, some sort of weirdo misogynist so filled with fear and loathing for everything female that you’ve actually set up an entire blog devoted to telling the world what an awesome alpha you are.
I’m not talking about walking around glowering; self-conscious anger is much worse than indiscriminate smiling. But women have always been drawn to brooding men, so rather than turning them away with a gesture of preemptive submission, give them something to which they can be drawn.
To be perfectly fair, though, this does work with most Bronte sisters.
Unless the parent is WTFarrell, of course.
Athywren – yeah, Darcy is a decent person; his main problem is snobbery (or as Colin Firth said in an interview, silliness). He helps people, goes out of his way to sort out the whole mess with Lydia and Wickham, and keeps his name out of it, and his attempt to split up Jane and Bingley was from a genuine belief that she didn’t care for him – he was wrong and admitted as much.
No, you’re not. That isn’t seduction.
Isn’t this the guy who says that women are happier when they’re being all submissive-like? Maybe it’s someone else…
Whose instinctive smile is big and goofy?
goof·y (go͞ofē) adjectiveinformal
1.NORTH AMERICAN; foolish; harmlessly eccentric.
Oh, submissiveness is why women smirk at goofy things. It has nothing to do with those things being goofy. Also, only attractive women? Really?
This Vox Day dude isn’t so good at the ol’ cognition.
Somehow I don’t think I’ve ever read “goofy smile” as signalling anything about status … possibly because I don’t assign status to people.
Well, except assigning really low status to assholes, like MRAs, right-wing politicians, fuckwitted managing directors and the like, of course.
I think goofy smiles are cute. Their presence won’t persuade me to sleep with someone who I otherwise wasn’t going to, or persuade me not to sleep with someone who I otherwise was going to, but they fit quite firmly into the “overall this trait is a plus” column. Looking vaguely bad tempered, otoh, does not go in the plus column, and if you go out of your way not to smile because you’re trying to prove something then I’m going to assume you’re a miserable, insecure, insincere asshole.
Having no facial expression at all, if that’s what he’s going for, will just make me wonder if you’re a Replicant.
I think Beale is muddling between
“Submissive people tend to smile instinctively as a social gesture”
and
“Submissive people smile consciously a lot because they want to please others”
I’m as much a “mangina” as they come, and I never smile instinctively except for pleasure or amusement. That’s when you get the big goofy grin. Sometimes I make a conscious effort to smile socially, or rather, not look so grumpy. I could never fake a hearty smile for my life. People here don’t generally smile a lot, especially men. I dunno if women get often told to smile.
Such cognitive dissonance from these guys: “Women are conniving manipulators, and this is how you socially engineer the hell out of them.” Uh, WHO was the conniving manipulator again, fella?
@Athywren: James Bond also rapes Pussy Galore (and then she falls in love with him because obvs).
Every “alphadood” ever:
http://medias.gifboom.com/medias/t_69d66bccaa2f4424b1da4a3e56775ab5.jpg
Lea
That’s from attack on Titan isn’t it? Yeah pretty much sums it up
I know I’m late to this, but on the subject of goofy smiles….
On my vacation in the Olympic Peninsula, we spotted a female hooded merganser swimming with her babies, who had an adorable habit of crawling onto her back. At one point, a young man happened by and we let him look through our binoculars. I have never seen a goofier smile, and it was absolutely charming. He kept saying, “The babies are on her back. THEY’RE ON HER BACK!!!”
That sounds all-round adorbs, cloudiah! 🙂
Oh, maybe not quite a goofy smile, but this pic of the Boss cuddling a wombat is pretty d’awww too.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/02/24/article-0-1BC73E4800000578-85_634x808.jpg
A wombat could make almost anyone adorable. I say almost, because I don’t think anything can make a bigot adorable, even if zie is absolutely covered in wombats.
No, I think that challenge is beyond even the power of wombats.
Or even hooded mergansers with their babies on their backs.
True! 😀
Now here’s a goofy grin situation!
http://youtu.be/kPb6HLrNN2A
I think that approach may be limited to 2 of the 3 Bronte sisters. After all, Alpha Broseph Heathcliff kinda… loses it.