Bitch Shield
Read the original article here.
(Heaven & Hell in the Phi Phi Islands)
And one of the best comments to it ever:
The girls looked that way on purpose to prevent you and other middle-aged men like you from approaching them or trying to talk to them. I know you don't want to hear this, but it's really, really true: 99% of 20 year-old girls are interested in talking to 20-year old guys, not guys who could be their father. And they view 40-something year-old unattached guys who try to talk to them as, at best, an irritating nuisance, and at worst, frightening and dangerous.
Therefore, pretty young girls learn quickly to perfect "a look of both intensity and detachment" because that is exactly the type of look that says "keep away -- I'm both busy and unfriendly." If a pretty young girl dares to look relaxed or happy around a vacationing, single middle-aged man, he starts to get ideas and begins to think he should talk to her. So when that type of guy is around, the bitch shield goes up. Amazingly, even with a snarling bitch face on, many single 40-something will STILL say something like "smile!" or otherwise try to engage the girl.
This article was hilarious. The author is genuinely mystified about why the young'uns -- but only the girls -- look so pissy. And he thinks this is something new. Hint: it's not new -- you're just old now, and you're exactly the type of guy these girls want to repel. They don't use that face for cute guys their own age, so you probably didn't see it a lot two decades ago. But if you're going to insist on continuing to check these girls out, no matter how old you get, then you should also get used to the bitch shield.
I'm not trying to be cruel here, just informative, so the author understands what's going on and can deal with the bitch shield appropriately in the future (hint: leave her alone). As a young lass, I used that face a million times, and you need to know that it's 100% on purpose and used for a particular audience. The reason all the pretty young things wore expressions that seemed to scream DON'T LOOK AT ME, DON'T TALK TO ME, DON'T TOUCH ME is because that's exactly what they intended.
(Heaven & Hell in the Phi Phi Islands)
And one of the best comments to it ever:
The girls looked that way on purpose to prevent you and other middle-aged men like you from approaching them or trying to talk to them. I know you don't want to hear this, but it's really, really true: 99% of 20 year-old girls are interested in talking to 20-year old guys, not guys who could be their father. And they view 40-something year-old unattached guys who try to talk to them as, at best, an irritating nuisance, and at worst, frightening and dangerous.
Therefore, pretty young girls learn quickly to perfect "a look of both intensity and detachment" because that is exactly the type of look that says "keep away -- I'm both busy and unfriendly." If a pretty young girl dares to look relaxed or happy around a vacationing, single middle-aged man, he starts to get ideas and begins to think he should talk to her. So when that type of guy is around, the bitch shield goes up. Amazingly, even with a snarling bitch face on, many single 40-something will STILL say something like "smile!" or otherwise try to engage the girl.
This article was hilarious. The author is genuinely mystified about why the young'uns -- but only the girls -- look so pissy. And he thinks this is something new. Hint: it's not new -- you're just old now, and you're exactly the type of guy these girls want to repel. They don't use that face for cute guys their own age, so you probably didn't see it a lot two decades ago. But if you're going to insist on continuing to check these girls out, no matter how old you get, then you should also get used to the bitch shield.
I'm not trying to be cruel here, just informative, so the author understands what's going on and can deal with the bitch shield appropriately in the future (hint: leave her alone). As a young lass, I used that face a million times, and you need to know that it's 100% on purpose and used for a particular audience. The reason all the pretty young things wore expressions that seemed to scream DON'T LOOK AT ME, DON'T TALK TO ME, DON'T TOUCH ME is because that's exactly what they intended.