SEE ME SMILE

ICON | MYTH

In medieval times, a woman with a smile was assumed to be sinful and seductive, power-seeking and open to the possibilities of immorality. Leonardo Da Vinci began painting The Mona Lisa between the years of 1503 and 1506 and carried the painting with him for the rest of his life, never finishing it before he died in 1519. Perhaps even Da Vinci could not settle on how to treat that smile.

Over five hundred years later, smiling women are considered the epitome of femininity. Thanks mostly to the advertising and film industries, women are expected to smile and exude politeness in both speech and manner otherwise she may be perceived as angry. Society does not have tolerance for an angry woman or her problems. Criticized for her somberness, Queen Elizabeth II expressed the dilemma well, “Why are women expected to beam all the time? It's unfair. If a man looks solemn, it's automatically assumed he's a serious person, not a miserable one.”

Indeed, women everywhere have long succumbed to society’s insistence on smiling to show a pleasant nature, be perceived as nice, downplay ambition and avoid intimidating others.

While the debate about the real significance of Mona Lisa’s shy smile will continue, modern women are taking possession of their power to decide for themselves why and when they smile, refusing to pay the emotional price of playing the part of compliant, happy-go-lucky females who seek first to please others. In striving to change all the subjective interpretations, they are, at last, owning their own smiles.