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why do americans seem to always have thick necks in photographs? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 year ago by 000999@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Both men and women. Is it to do with the way they smile/pose for the camera or something? Seriously, I can almost tell someone is American by the way their neck looks in a photo

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[–] bipmi@beehaw.org 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am an american and I have lived here my whole life, and I never got this. Almost every person I know IRL except me smiles with all their teeth out like a fucking demented shark or something, and if I dont show my teeth like Im about to bite someone then other people chide in like "come on you arent even smiling!". For some reason americans just bare all their teeth like dogs when we smile and its disgusting and weird

[–] Synnr@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Would it be wrong to assume you are self-conscious about your teeth (crooked, missing, etc)? This is the case with every American I know that doesn't like to smile on photos, although sometimes they're people who are happy to do full-burst laughter showing all in small trusted group settings.

[+] railsdev@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] Synnr@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't know if this is the case with you but if you have naturally wide eyes (say, anxiety for example) then a full tooth smile is creepy looking. Relaxed eyes on the other hand (think pictures of happily stoned people) are fine showing full mouth IMO.

Although some people "grit" or "bare(/bear?)" their teeth in an attempt to fake a natural laughter smile and... no. The muscles around the mouth should be relaxed not tense. There's no substitute for a candid laughter smile. But not many people can fake the crows feet in the eyes of a real smile, so if someone is more comfortable smiling with no teeth showing, that's more than fine.

I've done a bit of photography in my day.

[–] bipmi@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Im not particularly conscious and I do sometimes smile with some teeth showing, like if I was laughing super hard and my teeth just happened to be showing I wouldnt try to hide it. But if I am, say, taking a group photo, I dont smile with all my teeth out. Its just weird to me.