Resting Bitch Face: RBF for short. I'm sure many have heard this term or even used this term. According to Urban Dictionary, resting bitch face is: "a person, usually a girl, who naturally looks mean when her face is expressionless, without meaning to." Basically, people are labeled as having RBF if they aren't naturally smiling or showing any type of outright emotion.
I have a problem with the term RBF. I have been told that I have Resting Bitch Face. At times, a friend will tell me that I have RBF, followed by "don't worry, people will get to know you and realize that you aren't bitchy." Although the encouragement is there, I don't understand why, as females, we label women as bitches after a momentary glance.
No male would be told that they have RBF. If Resting Bitch Face isn't applicable to men, then why doesn't the term Resting Dick Face exist?
This isn't just skin deep, but the premise of characterizing or labeling a female as a bitch simply due to her facial expression, or lack thereof, is ridiculous. The fact that a strong, stoic, and composed female, who may not be outright or excessively friendly, is immediately labeled as a bitch is appalling. A male exhibiting the same characteristics would not be considered a bitch or a dick but seen as masculine.
This issue is not only the categorization, but the mentality that a female's personality is dictated by her appearance. If a female is expressionless, she is a bitch, while a male that is expressionless is simply a strong male. Why is there a negative connotation with serious women, while this is an expectation for men?
From a young age, children adopt their cultural and social values, attitudes, behaviors, and gender roles of their culture become ingrained in a child's mentality. We live in a time that promotes gender divisions and attributes activities, mannerisms, and even adjectives as being masculine or feminine.
In a cross-cultural psychological study by J. E. Williams and D. L. Best, a checklist of 100 adjectives was created. These adjectives were words that had an astounding consensus across cultures as to whether they were masculine or feminine. Male-associated adjectives included capable, confident, determined, enterprising, indifferent, precise, rational, rigid, serious, and stolid. Female-associated adjectives included affectionate, dependent, fickle, foolish, mild, nervous, sensitive, submissive, suggestible, talkative, timid, and unstable. It's safe to say that the trend in adjectives dictated as masculine or feminine is reflected in the phrase and concept of RBF.
Essentially, it is insulting to undermine and judge a female's personality and character based on a brief glimpse at her appearance, especially when a man wouldn't be attributed the same characteristics if he has an unemotional expression. Spreading judgment and negativity associated with the word bitch not only emphasizes gender divisions but is also painful to see women bringing down other women in such a negative manner.
This is why I will now avoid the term Resting Bitch Face. Use the term wisely or not at all, and think of what you are perpetuating when you use RBF to describe someone.
