000999why do americans seem to always have thick necks in photographs?
buh [she/her, any]Cop phrenology
This is interesting. Even skinny Americans? I’ve never heard this, but I have heard you can tell someone is American because people from elsewhere don’t lean on things when standing.
federalreverse-oldPeople from other countries also usually don’t expose their entire set of teeth when smiling…
I rarely smile at all, but I sure will lean when the opportunity presents itself.
I am an american and I have lived here my whole life, and I never got this. Almost every person I know IRL except me smiles with all their teeth out like a fucking demented shark or something, and if I dont show my teeth like Im about to bite someone then other people chide in like “come on you arent even smiling!”. For some reason americans just bare all their teeth like dogs when we smile and its disgusting and weird
Would it be wrong to assume you are self-conscious about your teeth (crooked, missing, etc)? This is the case with every American I know that doesn’t like to smile on photos, although sometimes they’re people who are happy to do full-burst laughter showing all in small trusted group settings.
Im not particularly conscious and I do sometimes smile with some teeth showing, like if I was laughing super hard and my teeth just happened to be showing I wouldnt try to hide it. But if I am, say, taking a group photo, I dont smile with all my teeth out. Its just weird to me.
I have very white, straight teeth (always get complimented, it’s weird) yet I can’t stand smiling in photos either. I always look like a dementor or serial killer; a natural smile? Sure but posing for the camera all cheesy? Hell no
I don’t know if this is the case with you but if you have naturally wide eyes (say, anxiety for example) then a full tooth smile is creepy looking. Relaxed eyes on the other hand (think pictures of happily stoned people) are fine showing full mouth IMO.
Although some people “grit” or “bare(/bear?)” their teeth in an attempt to fake a natural laughter smile and… no. There’s no substitute for a candid laughter smile. But not many people can fake the crows feet in the eyes of a real smile, so if someone is more comfortable smiling with no teeth showing, that’s more than fine.
I’ve done a bit of photography in my day.
If I can think of something funny on the spot and laugh a little bit I feel less creepy, but sometimes it’s just difficult to do that right then and there.
As for baring the teeth, a few times I caught myself doing this unintentionally as I get older; I always feel like an idiot afterward because I’ve always known this isn’t the way. It could be due to the fact that I’m (happily) rarely involved in these sort of photos as life goes on.
Two jokes I can make out of this. Which could dig at either US or EU/UK
I paid for it, I'm gonna show it off.
Have you seen the British?
dig at either US or EU/UK
Seems like that’s the whole point of Lemmy.
Well, it is federated and the main lemmy.ml site is full of tankies in disguise. So I imagine it spreads.
If we could get rid of the corruption and feel some sense of duty and control over our countries again instead of land mattering more than people when it came to the voting process, maybe people would feel less apt to dig.
They don't lean on things? Even if there's a perfectly sturdy horse or fence.right next to you?
Horses, cows, fences, houses, nothing. They stand on two legs like bipedal humanoids.
What a very natural and human way to phrase that, lmao.
I am a very natural and human speaker, after all!
It’s where we store our excess Freedom
The Freedom release mechanism on the B52 is activated by a flex of the neck.
Zoift [he/him]Because my trapezii are fuckin’ jacked. Straight yoked. I’ve been working on my sternocliedomastoid form for years with some serious cervical reps. Glad someone noticed.
owenfromcanadaAdds stability when firing.
also, when getting fired, on fire and during dumpster fires
Yup, that’s your average American Tuesday.
Guessing football and wrestling in high school, growth hormones in their meat, and an element of obesity. These are all guesses though, not shitting on the yanks.
ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝They might like it.
FfaerieOxideshitting on the yanks.
They might like it.
I'd always heard that was The Germans.
Plenty of Germans went to American, which is likely a melting pot of different nationalities’ sexual deviances.
ivanafterallJa, ja! Das ist wunderbar!
When i was 16, two of my friends went to study in america for a year or so. They went individually and didn't know eachother. One of them cam back obese and the other one was shredded and gained like 20kg.
I had a French roommate that put on 20 lbs while on a three month tourist visa. He was actually pretty skinny but he was nervous about flying back because he knew his friends/family would give him shit for putting on so much weight.
This is me. Competitive swimming and wrestling as a youth, along with many years of rock climbing.
My upper back and neck is disproportionately larger than my lower torso and legs.
As an american, I find this thread extremely entertaining but also perplexing. Now I want to see side-by-side comparisons of photos of americans and photos of non-americans. As others have said this is nothing I’ve ever noticed, but now I want to know if this is actually a thing or not.
Picture of a freedom loving American and an illegal alien from New Mexico.
ithasMaybe it's a focal length difference? Example
Earl TurletOh so now you’re saying I have a big focal length?!?!?!? What is it with you people
Can you share example pictures what you mean?
I was hoping for that comment. I'm lost.
I’m lost
See the problem here is that you aren’t aware the americabad
You’re looking at football fans, who obsess over overeating and competitive sports. While the US has a lot of those, they are not the only demographic.
It’s probably the three years we spend in middle school power lifting in PE class.
It’s evolution. In the days of the wild west, outlaws were typically dispatched by noose.
Occasionally one would slip out of the noose and make for the hills before the law could put any lead in him.
Those thick-necked outlaws then spread their genes to the present day. We call this “survival of the thiccest”.
Call me Lenny/LeniHow many different populations have you observed this in? I’ve never observed this.
Car culture is huge in the United States. Most folks I know drive everywhere even if it’s only a mile away. Add fast food drive-throughs like McDonald’s to this and you get obesity and thick “necks”.
Why not stretch him more?
This guy looks like the “if humans evolved to survive high impact car crashes” figure they made a while back.
WugmeisterI remember when I first saw Project Graham. I thought it was so cool and immediately homebrewed it into a human subrace for my D&D campaign.
hey dont take ed down this road.
he is a very sensible, loving human beeing.
on the search for love…
(yes, my girlfriend likes to watch trash tv… and yes, I am rethinking sometimes my choices)
He looks like Patrick from SpongeBob.
This guy has literally no neck, not a fat neck. He can’t look over his shoulder because his skill is attached to it.
amniotic druidYour mum’s skill is attached to her shoulders lmao
Her her skill is attached to her neck, not her shoulders.
We’re really fat
And in some places if you’re perfectly healthy you’ll be harassed about needing to “put some meat on those bones.”
sweatersocialist [comrade/them]that’s where we store all our oppression freedom
HEY OP, YOU CAN'T JUST ACCUSE AN ENTIRE NATION OF HAVING THICK NECKS AND DISAPPEAR WITHOUT ELABORATING. DO I HAVE A THICK NECK!?
I HAVE NIPPLES GREG!! COULD YOU MILK ME?!?!
Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of your ginormous neck.
makeasnekIn addition to being overweight, there is the problem of your posture getting stuck in a position if you are always in that position. You know how in other countries people take public transit and walk or bike places? This allows the posture to reset after sitting at an office. Americans never get that chance because they go from sitting at the office to sitting in their car to sitting on their couch. So their neck and shoulders never really gets much of an opportunity to not be pushing kind of forward. Add to this that they are often looking down at their phones and you can imagine how the combination of these two postures can result in a thicker appearing neck.
Edit to also add to this: Americans are also on the higher end of the average height globally. This means if you take a picture of one, there is a better chance the American will be looking somewhat downwards at the camera, which also increases the size of the neck. If you interact with Americans in real life and you are shorter than their average height, this perception trick will also happen. It’s one of the many insidious ways we maintain our dominance over other countries. 🦅🦅🦅🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲