A Really, Really Short Cultural History of Smiling

In the midst of writing this post, I discovered that there actually is a book titled, A Brief History of the Smile, which I'm looking forward to reading at some smiley point in the future. But what got me thinking about the subject was when I noticed Erica Sherman's blog about Jews for Jesus (whom she describes as "twitty ruffians"). Her encounter with Jews for Jesus is depicted thusly:

So, imagine how awkward it was for me last night wearing my standard army green and yellow Israel Defense Forces t-shirt and having to walk past the Jews for Jesus missionaries passing out leaflets outside of my train station.

"No thank you," I emotionlessly exclaimed, hastily walking past the rather hip-looking young lady in the J4J t-shirt trying to offer me some literature.
She noticed my shirt. Damn.

Fidgeting in my pockets for my MetroCard to gain entry past the turnstyle, quickly, I turned around, mildly riled, and found her looking at me, smiling, and then I just got creeped out and ran through the turnstyle.

Ach, killing me with kindness. These people make me sick ...

What's up with that? Creeped out from a smile? It would have been better if the person had scowled at her?

The author of The Coochie Papers blogs that:

I've decided that the Jews for Jesus are a step too far. Go back West, you filth, and leave me be. It's hot and humid and my undershirt is soaked, and I have no time for you and your eager smile and enormous backpack.

Another subtext here that the smile in question is suspicious, creepy, or just over the top.

Smiling is an interesting facial phenomenon. There are many kinds of smiles (think smiley faces, Jack Nicholson's Joker in Batman, the Cheshire Cat). It also has an interesting and probably checkered history. (I've never known exactly what "checkered" means in "checkered history" but it does make the subject sound more fascinating than it would otherwise be.) In old photos like this one, people didn't smile because it was hard to hold a smile for the long exposure time that was needed. When technology allowed for faster photography, smiling became the vogue, a kind of social convention, something to do when your picture is taken. Just like "What's up?" is a conventional greeting whether or not you actually want to know what is up.

I have the impression, just based on personal observation, that in the past few decades smiling has more and more gone out of favor. Some people believe that when your picture is taken, you should just look how you feel at the time. When people greet other people, it seems to me that it's often done more smile-lessly than in the past. Once upon a time, a smile suggested friendliness. Today for many people it tends to suggest insincerity or worse. So-called "authenticity" has replaced social convention. To some, that's all for the better. A lot of social conventions, though, are like oil that greases a wheel or like smoothing out the ice so you can skate. I'm not sure I'd want to be greeted with "Bad morning" by someone who was actually having one.

Or so I think. At any rate, returning to the blogs that started this post, avoiding considering spiritual things because someone is smiling strikes me as an indication of how little social niceties are greasing the wheels of communication these days.

I hope these smiles will make you smile: