Why are Filipinos always smiling?
Sunrise in the metropolis as seen from One Shangri-La Place, soon to rise in the Ortigas Center business district.
2. Beauty pageant-mad Pinoys put a great premium on looks, and we have been brought up to believe that people are more attractive when they are smiling. This is not true: with mouths open and teeth exposed, some of us look like baboons on acid. However, someone told us that frowning causes wrinkles and we’re not sure how true this is but we dare not take the risk.
3. Like Pavlov’s experiment in which dogs were conditioned to start drooling at the sound of a bell, we have been trained to smile at the sight of a camera. It is difficult to overcome childhood programming: the memory of adults jumping up and down in front of us with faces contorted, waving their hands, goggling their eyes and shouting, “Sige na naman, smile! I’ll give you candy!” will haunt us forever. We associate smiling with rewards. Where’s our candy?
Our default setting is a smile, my column in interaksyon.com.
Sunset in the metropolis as seen from One Shangri-La Place, soon to rise in the Ortigas Center business district.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
September 1st, 2011 at 16:49
maybe we all think we’re in an – (our own) absurd reality show — what else can we do anyway — ?
here we are smiling in front of a hostage scene http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/filipinos-taking-photos-at-manila-hostage-scene-chinese-netizen-reactions.html
paul ekman studied emotions & their link to facial expressions & he classified numerous smiles — duchenne smile, felt smile, miserable smile, social smile, etc. he created FACS – teh facial action coding system (now being used by Pixar animators) http://www.paulekman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/Felt-False-And-Miserable-Smiles.pdf
September 1st, 2011 at 16:51
http://www.paulekman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/The-Duchenne-Smile-Emotional-Expression-And-Brain-Physiolog.pdf
September 1st, 2011 at 17:46
i remember rina jimenez david discussed this in her column.
the subject were the filipinas in hong kong, the vast majority of whom, according to a survey conducted around that time, were happy.
ms david explained it thus : filipinos like to their self, the self is their to be shared. (besides the dictionary meaning, self has a meaning in literature that would take an entire semester to understand.) you can see manifestations of this tendency in our traditional homes (bahay kubo and spanish colonial house) that had no privacy, the very frequent gathering of friends and relatives, for instance in fiestas and bdays, the daily gathering in front the sarisari store, etc. filipinos don’t like being alone. it’s strange to us to want to be alone, left out, isolated. we want to participate in community events, to be part of the crowd.
September 1st, 2011 at 18:44
“We have very low suicide rates. Because we laugh at our problems; sometimes to a fault. Pero dahil nga natatawanan natin, hindi tayo nagpapakamatay.
Namamatay tayo sa pollution, kahirapan at kung ano-ano pa.
Pero! Hindi suicide darling! Mind you!” –Jon Santos as Ate V
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drz5ovQ26iI&feature=player_detailpage#t=503s
September 2nd, 2011 at 02:12
Ever heard of a low-life robbery suspect who was nabbed by police? While being photographed,he even sneaked in a mischievous grin for his mug shot. Now that’s what I call “confidence”. What bothers me is that in general, Pinoys expect everybody to smile all the time,even though they may be buried in lawsuits,bankruptcy,disease,unemployment and poverty. It truly boggles the mind.
September 2nd, 2011 at 04:47
I have never been the type who smiles for no reason and I always got comments that I’m “always serious” when I was back home. It used to irritate me. Now that I live in the US, I never hear that anymore. That’s when the cultural difference really struck me. I do remember that Rina David op-ed; she hit the nail on the head. She also said that we are the only ones who like having a communal “sawsawan” when we dine. LOL.
I tell my American friends why serial killing is more of a Western phenomenon and would never thrive in a country like ours: somebody suspicious will be “chismissed” about in the neighborhood in no time. Here, it’s all quiet in the neighborhood and nobody talks to anybody (or even knows any of the neighbor’s names), except for the wave/hi when we walk past each other to pick up the mail.
Sometimes I do crave some of the noise and street chatter, but not too much. There must be some place in the middle of both extremes.
September 2nd, 2011 at 07:22
This piece was refreshing. It makes me happy to be a Filipino.
September 2nd, 2011 at 11:01
@Franzi — that’s arrogance more than confidence. — mischievous grin for his mug shot.