Kristen Stewart: smiling is not an obligation, professional or otherwise
”She stands out on the red carpet because she does not smile broadly or pose; she usually looks slightly uncomfortable. Of her red-carpet experience,Stewart said:
People say that I’m miserable all the time. It’s not that I’m miserable, it’s just that somebody’s yelling at me…I literally, sometimes, have to keep myself from crying…It’s a physical reaction to the energy that’s thrown at you.”“Stewart is often a target of a specific kind of body policing: the “smile, baby” requirement. When she appears on the red carpet and does not assure us with her teeth that she is simply thrilled to be reduced to a presence, a dress, a posture, she is often the target of harassment for her expression. There is an expectation of women in general and famous woman in particular to always assure the onlooker that they are happy to be looked upon through smiling, and Stewart rejects this.”
Women are expected to be nice and sweet, to make other people feel comfortable. A woman who says ‘hey, I think there’s a problem here’ is being ‘negative.’ A woman who doesn’t smile while she’s being harassed is ‘humourless.’ A woman who prefers to stay focused on tasks is a ‘cold bitch.’ Significant gendering is involved here; women have an obligation to look and act a certain way and when they don’t, they need to be hassled until they do.
This makes sense to me and reminds me of the time I decided to wear a skirt, heels and a blouse to a wedding several years ago. My hair was long then, past my shoulder blades, so I looked pretty feminine. I remember how my appearance garnered a great deal of attention. Many of the women made general comments about how “pretty” or “good” I looked. Specifically, I remember a remark made by an older gentleman made about my appearance to me, upon seeing me he exclaimed “You look like such a woman!” As if, in my jeans and t-shirts, I lacked this quality before. I suppose this is a different kind of “body policing” than what Stewart was subject to, I was not ever subject to the “smile baby” harangue (and I have theories about why this was), but the remark made by the older man at the wedding confirms the existing of body policing.
