It also turned out that I did not dress appropriately interrupted men when they were talking even if they paused for breath and it seemed to me they were done rambling on and on spoke out about controversial issues like presidential campaigns, civil rights, lack of diversity in both employees and courses and a host of other things I did that identified me as a “left-wing feminist.” I knew I had an EEOC case when the female faculty member assigned to be my “mentor” explained to me that “you have to dress to please the men” in order to get tenure. It seems that when I walked about the campus, I had failed to smile at the people who would determine my status as faculty or reject. Take teaching: There’s an ever- growing body of evidence that female professors are rated more harshly than their male peers on things like classroom demeanor, which means the stakes of “not smiling enough” or appearing “too outspoken” can become very high. And the subtle, unconscious biases that influence things like promotions and evaluations make the office one place where women sometimes really do “have” to smile to succeed. The need to preserve a good relationship with coworkers and clients means that responding angrily to frustrating requests isn’t really an option. And yet, it’s complicated: While pressure to smile at work is usually less overt and less frightening than street harassment, it can also carry greater repercussions.

About once a month I encounter some dummy in the hallway who says “Smile!”-always a man, and most of the time far below me in station. I work in a male-dominated environment with a high percentage of former military.

Bright bugz smile more edition