You're not the only one to notice that:
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The soyjack (portmanteau of soyboy and wojack) with the gaping mouth, pretending to express mirth or amazement when in truth communicating barely hidden horror at his hopelessly dehumanized condition, has even become a meme:
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Holy cow. I knew it was a 'thing', but I didn't realize it was quite so pandemic.
I was thinking about it a bit more and realized that I'd noticed the phenomenon decades ago and had wondered about it then...
I remember seeing an interview in some kind of comic shop industry magazine with a fellow who had something to do with Magic The Gathering cards. They needed a photograph of the fellow to go with the story, and he provided one of those gaping, "Wacky Happy" face shots. I can't imagine that any sane editor would have picked the shot for their story if they'd had any choice in the matter, so it was probably something the guy sent them when requested and it was too close to the deadline to ask for another. -Guys who worked on obscure fantasy and sci-fi products didn't have professionally done portrait shots of themselves in their resumes. (Or probably, resumes.) They had a cruddy 1990's digital camera and a room mate to snap the pic. So that's what the magazine editor received.
Thing is, I'd been around that kind of person growing up a lot, the typical comics geek, and so recognized the energy immediately. I quite enjoyed the company of such dudes in small groups; they were smart, friendly and imaginative, and into sci-fi and all that fun crap. Good guys, for the most part, but..., they did tend to get really weird beyond a very narrow band of public spaces (beyond the movie theater and fast food joints). They especially would get nervous and self-conscious in any settings where they might have to interact with girls outside of school.
So the "Wacky Fun" mask was how they'd represent themselves when put on the spot. I figured it was a kind of exaggerated defense mechanism allowing them to still be able to function and present themselves while suffering from crippling self-consciousness. If you overwhelm the people looking at you with a "Wacky Fun" energy, (which is controlled), then it's hard to see the uncomfortable and largely not controlled reaction which would be there naturally.
Which might be an argument for the importance of making boys not hide from social interactions when they are young, no matter how difficult they may feel it is. You must learn that stuff, or they'll make meme graphics of you when you grow up.
But again, it's the same kind of energy as I see on smartphone videos like that cringe "Vaccine slut" example. The use of a super-exaggerated expression of Happy Fun energy to hide a feeling of extreme discomfort and vulnerability. (Smiling at the predator to show submissive energy? Maybe. You'd never see a super-masculine dude make a face like that. Or a woman with any sense of self-worth.)
Living in a world where there are cameras EVERYWHERE, with the possibility of being photographically presented every day must make these kinds of people really uncomfortable, so maybe that's why we're seeing that intense mouth-face show up so much.
Oh, the poor, dear humans! Physical needs are met, but emotionally.., what a hard and weird time to be alive!
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