Are you tired of random people on the street telling you to smile? Do you wish they’d just leave you and your dour-looking expression alone? Well, clearly the easiest and simplest solution to this problem is just to do what those catcallers say and turn that frown upside down. After all, all those randos have your best interests at heart, right? Ladies, welcome to the Smile Bitch Training Camp: Plastering manic grins on the faces of women everywhere since 2014!
According to the delightful promotional video currently making the rounds on the Internet, by the time you’ve completed your stay at the Smile Bitch Training Camp, “you’ll be able to smile at any horrible circumstance the world throws at you.” These circumstances include losing your job, your beloved pet dying, and many, many more. And with testimonials like this one — “Guys never have to have their day ruined by seeing my unhappy face!” — you can be sure that the Smile Bitch Training Camp really works.
Oh, and pay no attention to the little… intrusion around the 50-second mark — we have no idea how that managed to make its way in. No, seriously — ignore it. The perpetrator is being dealt with as we speak, so you’ll never have to worry about seeing anything like that ever again:
Obviously the Smile Bitch Training Camp doesn’t actually exist (thank goodness). Written and produced by Janelle James and directed by Laura Prangley, it’s another brilliant response to street harassment. We’ve been over why we might not be smiling (even if it's none of your business), as well as why saying hello is definitely #notjusthello; James, Prangley, and their amazing team both behind the camera and in front of it, though, take street harassment to task through comedy. Like all good comedy, it both mocks its subject and comments on it — and the biting edge seen in the broadcast signal intrusion-style moment drives it home.
We don’t ask you to smile all the time, street harassers. So don’t ask us to do it, either.
Image: Janelle James/YouTube
