The TikTik upload by user Elise Ecklund has left users of the social media platform wondering if what she calls a permanent sad face or PSF is a real state of affairs.
“Many of you didn’t believe me when I said I had never smiled in my life,” she says in the video.
“I’m here to give you one more cold, hard proof that I never smile.” TikTok users have since noted that they have seen her smile in previous videos.
Is a permanent sad face or PSF a real condition?
No, not in the way TikTok user Elisa Eklund describes in her recent video.
There is no officially recognized health condition that makes people look sad all the time. Eklund’s video is comedic. As noted by some of those who have commented on this, those who have indicated that they have seen her smile before in previous videos did not seem to get the joke.
However, the state that she allegedly has is really the place to be. some basis in fact. Or at least it has something to do with real life. CNN Health has reported in the past on scientific studies that suggest a phenomenon we call the “resting bitch face.” is real.
In 2015, scientists found that celebrities with bored or annoyed facial expressions actually “showed a deep level of emotion.” That is, they were not neutral, so their faces were not “resting”.
Did Eklund ever smile in her videos?
Yes. As several TikTok users (who may have thought her PSF claim was real) pointed out, she is seen smiling in some of her older videos.
And you don’t even have to go back that far. In one posted on June 28, 2022, she pretends to be a child participating in a KIDZ BOP audition. She does so with a noticeable smile.
In another, taken a month earlier, she answers the question of whether she’s married by smiling, even if it’s not a particularly big smile. She also smiles a few times in last year’s March video in which she tests finger mittens for guitarists.
Once again, the persistent sad face, or PSF, is not a condition in the sense that Eliza Eklund describes it, even if it has something to do with the phenomenon mentioned above.
RBF, BRF and “permanent frown”
Everyday Health quotes New York City dermatologist Jessica J. Krant as saying that “there is no formal term in dermatology for ‘persistent frown’.”
But it pops up in dermatologists’ offices “regularly,” she adds, “when a patient comes in complaining of […] people always think [they] look sad or angry.”
Celebrities have addressed the idea several times that their resting face might not have seemed neutral in the past, cementing terms like “resting bitch face” (RBF) or “resting bitch face” (BRF) into modern vernacular.
Actress Ellie Kemper and talk show host Conan O’Brien compared their not-quite-neutral faces at rest in 2016. ” confuse.
In other news, is the permanent sad face (PSF) a real condition? TikTok video sparks curiosity
