How many times have people stopped and asked if you were okay? What on earth is wrong? Cheer up. Why do you look so moody? And when you assure them that you’re fine, they say, “you don’t seem like it. You look like you’re angry about something.”
Then you laugh and say, “that's just my face. honestly, I'm fine.”
This happens to me almost every day, and I think it’s safe to say that I’ve managed to perfect the resting bitch face.
Today I had to laugh at myself. I was on my way to pick my son up from school, and as I approached the bus stop I realised that my bus had been delayed. Not gonna lie, this pissed me off because I had to ring the school and tell them to take my son to the school office so I could pick him up from there.
I always make a complete idiot of myself when I have to ring people. I sometimes stutter, or I take forever to get to the point. Then I have to deal with the long uncomfortable goodbyes. So the conversation looks like this…….
“Oh hello, I’m just calling to say that I am on my way. It’s just my silly bus has been delayed or canceled, I’m not even sure. Ummm, so I shouldn’t be too long.”
“Okay, well who’s your child?” Says the receptionist
“Oh sorry, I don’t know why I forgot say who I was, (giggle.) My son's name is jack,” I say
“That's fine. We will keep him in the office until you get here.” says the receptionist.
“Oh brilliant. Ummm, so I shouldn't be too long. I think it will be here soon.” I slowly say
“That's fine, we will see you soon.”
“Okay, I won't be long. Thank you. bye, (giggle,) bye, bye, (giggle again,) bye.”
And then they hang up before me. I mean what the heck is that about, seriously?
Anyway, so after that awkward little conversation, I stood and patiently waited for the bus.
An acquaintance of mine crossed the street and noticed me standing around. (I say acquaintance because I’ve realised that as I get older, I see less and less of people, and they often turn into acquaintances rather than ‘friends.’) I smiled at her as she approached me, or at least I think I smiled.
She asked how I was and what I was doing. So I told her I was fine and that I was waiting for the bus. She then turned to me and said, “Oh, are you okay? You seem a little stressed.” I smiled and assured her that I was just fine, I’d just been waiting a while.
“Oh right, well cheer up, because you look so moody,” she said
Because she wouldn’t take my word that I was fine, I decided to try my absolute best to smile, and I swear, if you have a resting bitch face then trying to force a smile looks bloody ridiculous, and you feel so silly.
She said, “Aww, that’s better, you can smile. I don’t know why you don’t do it more often.” After that, she said goodbye and left. I won’t lie, my smile turned into a frown — and I rolled my eyes whilst turning away.
After the bus arrived, it took around ten minutes to reach my stop, so I got off and proceeded to walk toward the school. Once I arrived, I had to wait a few minutes outside, and opposite me were two very large windows so I could see my reflection.
As I was looking at everything around me, I suddenly noticed my frowning face staring back at me, and I swear I looked so fucking miserable and angry.😠😡
I tried not to burst into hysterics and wondered, “my god, do I actually look like that? no wonder everyone thinks I’m a moody cow.”
I spent the entire way home trying to force my miserable face to smile. I could tell I looked ridiculous cause my son turned to me and said, “Mum, why do you keep making that face?” I said, “what face? I’m just smiling.” Then he said, “you look weird mum, stop it.” Then he giggled and changed the subject.
So I can’t win, I pull my natural, obviously emotionless face and I get called a grumpy cow, and then I actually try and smile, and I’m told I look weird 🤣
This evening, I’ve sat thinking about my resting bitch face and three reasons why I love it. For your benefit, (and mine) I’m going to call the resting bitch face RBF, so I don’t have to write resting bitch face over and over again.
Number 1 — When people get to know me, they realize how nice I am.
Everybody expects me to be this mean bitchy person because of how my face looks, but I can assure you that I’m actually a nice person. I’m anxious and shy, but once you get to know me, I’ll come out of my shell and make sure I brighten up your day.
Anyway, a couple of people I know always said to me, “god when I first met you, you looked like such a bitch.” And after a while — they got to see the real me, the nice — less anxious — funny side. Then they said, “you're actually really nice.”
Number 2 — Some people know when they've genuinely made me happy
As I said earlier, when I try and force a smile I look ridiculous, but when someone makes me laugh, and I manage to pull off a nice natural smile, then people know that I genuinely mean it.
Number 3 — People know not to mess with me
Obviously, I suffer from anxiety, so I try to make myself invisible when I’m outside. So one perk of having an RBF is that I look more confident, and people will think twice about trying to mess with me.
So if you’ve also got a resting bitch face, then just embrace it. I mean come on, we look like we are proper badass. Remember if your mouth doesn't say it then your face sure will.
So what about you guys. Do you have a resting bitch face? ♥