The Ambiguous Smile

The history and hazards of smiling as a woman.

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Some people smile , and I might be one of them. I was born in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, and my favorite childhood was about how “a smile can make a gloomy day brighter,” fostering friendship and warmth all over the world.

Growing up, I genuinely believed in the power of the smile, and by my teenage years, firmly adopted smiling as a personal philosophy, a proud mark of a person determined to be happy.

I lived with this notion for 28 years, until last year, I stumbled upon a particular paragraph in Jane Goodall’s book about the conservation of chimpanzees in Tanzania. Goodall described Melissa, a socially anxious chimpanzee that regularly tried to ingratiate herself with superiors, reaching out to touch any passing adult male. When the male turned toward her, Melissa “drew her lips back into a submissive grin.”

Goodall went on to describe the meaning behind the scene and explained that although the smile is considered to be our “happy face,” most certainly, it originated…