Do you look like a total biatch, sitting there sipping a latte at Starbucks while waiting for friends in the park in the mid-afternoon sun? Rest at ease, (while looking bitchy). You are not alone.
According to Today.com, Resting Bitch Face (RBF) is a default facial expression that comes off as overly serious or even aggressive, when the wearer is simply at rest, and is an actual phenomenon already playing out in a neighborhood near you.
And according to Renee Paulson on Quartz, Resting Bitch Face can actually be an asset.
Paulson points to Dr. John Lund, a researcher and public speaker on interpersonal communication, who has said if you have RBF, “Instead of communicating to be understood you have to communicate to not be misunderstood.”
And this is good.
The logic goes that, since owners of Resting Bitch Face must regularly try extra hard to convince others that they are actually ok and that they are in approval of another’s presence, they quickly become an expert in ensuring others understand them, making them good communicators.
RBFs spend extra time ensuring that others ‘get’ them, regardless of their face.
“Women confronted by a world that automatically attaches negative attributes to their non-smiling face must quickly learn how to communicate and also hone a finely tuned awareness of both our own emotions and the emotions of those around us,” Paulson writes.
So, if this is you, Resting Bitch Face-sufferer, and you regularly walk around with a pronounced snarl but actually feel the love and inner light of the world glowing inside you- rest assured and count yourself lucky. You have a way with words.
Photo credit: mentatdgt/Shutterstock
