Yeah, I just went through the passport renewal process. The State Department website has a bunch of rules on how a passport photo needs to be composed. Don’t have hair covering your face, have a white background, no visible shadows, etc
Weirdly, the passport photo taker lady at my local county courthouse said I could smile if I wanted to. I didn’t want to risk it, so I still gave it my best resting bitch face
In hindsight, Disney’s policy of cast members being expected to smile on stage is one of the more strange and cult-y parts of that job. Haunted Mansion was a very popular attraction to work, and a surprisingly big part of that was because it was the only guest-facing job you weren’t expected to smile in.
I mean, I literally live in Norway, and I don’t feel this. Sure, many people do struggle with depression and such, but it doesn’t feel as if you’re not allowed to be happy.
I’m not taking about not being allowed to feel happy. People who have a neutral facial expression aren’t all depressed and unhappy. Just like people who have a constant smile on their face are not all happy. For many Americans it’s the norm to constantly smile even when you are unhappy like when you greet people even when you just walk past some stranger on the streets. While in many places in Europe that would be seen as creepy where the neutral facial expression is normal. Like if you go into a store in the US especially one of a big corporate chain you get greeted by an employee with a fake big smile on their face. Which is not the norm in many places in Europe.
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