Smiling helps us cope, enhances our health and extends our lives. We're born to smile. We even smile in the womb.
So why then do fashion models all look so miserable? Theories abound: Genuine misery due to starvation, art directors who don't want to draw attention away from the goods, attempts to seem superior (primates show teeth as a sign of submissiveness).
It doesn't make me want to run out and shop. Why would I buy clothes that depress even the model -- who, one assumes, likes clothes?
The September 27, 2015, New York Times Style Magazine was a hefty dead tree of 250 pages. On those 250 pages were printed 120 visible faces -- counting both ads and editorial. Of those 120 faces, seven were smiling. Seven.
Who were they? Children? Sorry. Animals? Please. Clowns? Don't make me laugh. So who gets away with showing a bit of tooth in New York fashion? It helps to be a male over 40 - especially if you're in a car. If you're selling furniture, you can have both a smile AND a vagina. Just don't try it too often. Authors! some of you got the memo before sending in a pic for your bio. Some didn't. If you're an animated 1950s soda pop cup, you get a free pass.
The animated gif contains all 113 miserable faces and seven not so miserable ones.
Say cheese! Please?