Health & Medical & Ideas Posted by Oaktown Girl, 08 Aug 2007 04:00 am
New World Smiles
Some preferences and prejudices are so deeply ingrained that often we don’t even realize we are harboring them. And even if we are consciously aware of them, the correctness of our particular perspective on the matter seems so patently obvious that it doesn’t even occur to us that anyone else in the developed Western world could have a differing view, because, how could they? Why would they? They couldn’t, and they wouldn’t. Right?
When one is suddenly confronted with a radically differing view of something (regardless of, or perhaps because of however mundane it may be) that couldn’t possibly have a differing view, the shock of it rattles to the core. First, because you are caught off-guard - you can’t be prepared for something you didn’t know existed. Second, because without warning, you have an entirely different world view of the matter to contemplate. And in situations where the long-term, ruminating over it for years type of contemplation is not required, it still might be something that stops you in your tracks (literally), and demands that you drop whatever you’re doing and contemplate it right now.
One of my so-deeply ingrained-it’s-below-my-radar prejudices got hit with a brick recently on the seemingly mundane subject of teeth. It happened when I read a passage in a book about the late, great British cellist Jacqueline Du Pre.** In the Winter of 1967-68, Jackie’s sister, Hilary, relates that Jackie said the following while relating tales of her experiences giving concerts in America:
‘You know, Hil, I’m fascinated by American mouths’, she suddenly announced, changing the subject completely. ‘Rows of perfect teeth, set in a hideous grin and a gushing “aren’t we pals” expression.’
Her mouth stretched to reveal a mass of grinning teeth, as she pranced around the kitchen.
What?! A Brit making disparaging remarks about American teeth? Granted, the statement is mostly a reflection on the socio-cultural differences between the British and Americans, but it’s the physical appearance of our teeth that lends the genuine creepiness factor, not the behavior. That a British person would find one of our most prized physical characteristics to be the icing on the altogether off-putting cake that is an American never even entered my mind. The Brits don’t make fun of our teeth, we make fun of theirs. That’s the order of things.
Or so I thought.
Speaking from the experience of having only lived in urban, not rural areas, I can say that without a doubt, most (urban) Americans not only love straight teeth, but expect reasonably straight teeth, both for themselves and the people around them. Any well-functioning adult below the age of 65 and above the poverty line who has noticeably crooked teeth, a severely yellowed tooth (or teeth), or a missing tooth (or teeth) stands out as much as if that person were wearing a propeller beanie in the board room. That Americans have a long tradition of making fun of “bad” teeth, particularly of the British variety, and that it has been a staple of our collective humor for decades (if not longer), illustrates the depth and pervasiveness of the American distain for crooked teeth.
On one episode of The Simpsons, Lisa is told that she needs braces. The dentist, in order to emphasize the the seriousness of the matter, pulls out a book entitled The Big Book of British Smiles. The book showed page after page of smiling Brits with ghastly teeth, each more vile than the one before.
In the Austin Powers movie, one of the biggest gags rested on the fact that Austin was a sex symbol in Britain in the 1960’s, before his 1990’s American dental makeover.
For American-on-American tooth insult violence, on the hit 70’s show Sanford and Son, while trading insults with his sister-in-law and arch enemy, Esther, the accusation of “snaggle-tooth” was oft tossed around (Esther to Fred, it memory serves). The insult was cutting both because of our deeply held prejudices against crooked teeth as well as its negative associations with being poor.
I didn’t realize it until reading that book passage, but I had been operating under the assumption that the British envied our straight American teeth. It never occurred to me that beyond being “used to’ teeth that are not entirely perfect, they might actually like it that way - every smile being truly unique instead of relatively uniform like ours. Huh. Who knew?
Jaqueline Du Pre is said to have made that statement some 40 years ago. Sweet Lord Astaroth, what would she be saying now, with all the technical advances in dentistry - Da Vinci veneers being slapped on teeth that are perfectly fine, just not “perfect”, and tooth-whitening done to unnatural extremes? Truth be told, these days, even I’m a little creeped-out by American smiles.
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Jacqueline Du Pre
Photo compliments of EMI Classics
**From the book A Genius in the Family, by Hilary and Piers Du Pre; passage quoted from the chapter, “Retreat from the World”.
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Responses to “New World Smiles”
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 6:52 am 1. JP Stormcrow said …
This has been a moving target class distinction thing in the US during my lifetime. My teeth are “marginal” for my age, and definitely below standard by current norms. My dad’s were always a mess - he smoked pipes and cigars and I think for the first 40 years of life only regularly saw a dentist while in the military. I have noticed that British co-workers tended to have teeth that looked more like my father’s than mine.
And right now sitting on my kitchen table is an estimate for several thou more in orthodontia for my 20 yr. old son - based on “tooth wear and decay concerns” of course, rather than cosmetics … at least that is their hook.
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 10:14 am 2. Seattle said …
I’ve been rather bemused since I came to my current work place at the number of requests for references and recommendations for adult orthodontics. In my mind, you straightened teeth during childhood and let ‘em go after a certain age. This is something my sister was tortured with during adolescent due to a gap between her front teeth. Well, now she’s in her late 40’s, the gap came back and to hell with going back to braces. Now it almost seems to be a fashion trend to try and control the spacing of teeth through out life. I know of at least two people who have also had complete mouth make overs including having the jaw broken, back teeth rebuilt, etc.
However on a different note, the quote from the cellist reminds me of a phase that all travelers go through to some degree I believe. A sort of cultural attraction reversal. What seems intriguingly different and therefore attractive becomes irritating over time. However, not having read the whole book, I’m just going off my own experiences.
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 10:24 am 3. JP Stormcrow said …
Of course there are many other American stereotypes that are not so flattering. My favorite was in Geneva, Switzerland when getting directions to the airport shuttle, and the response was “just follow the other fat people” (i.e Americans). This was from a “friend” - who said it was a standing joke there. I guess it is more practical than “follow the people with the Howdy-Doody teeth”.
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 11:12 am 4. Zeus said …
Oaktown Girl,
Interesting conversation. When the shoe’s on the other foot, it sure looks different, doesn’t it. And how about not only physical but attitudinal stereotypes. The “ugly American” doesn’t refer to to our shiny teeth or obsession with youth and looks, so much as our disdain and desire to hold the superficial over the substantive and sacrificial. As a result, when we attempt to be substantive, we Americans have to occasionally distance ourselves from our (mongrel) pedigree passed off as “chosen people.” Sometimes my wife claims Canandian-ship when she travels. (in a move actually approved by Canadians, “We don’t mind using our nationality as long as they are cool”)
Citizen Zeus
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 11:29 am 5. Oaktown Girl said …
in Geneva, Switzerland when getting directions to the airport shuttle, and the response was “just follow the other fat people” (i.e Americans).
Ouch. Well, as long as they keep allowing American fast food joints into their countries, they’ll be catching up with us in short order.
Seattle - you’re right. There is a huge push going on for adult orthodontics for purely cosmetic purposes. Big money in that. Back in 2003 (when I last had coverage, I only just recently got dental coverage back), my dentist was trying to push it on me - all kinds of horror stories about what could happen as my teeth continue to crowd together over time. But, you know, that costs a lot of money, and it’s not covered in the plan.
There are certainly times when adult orthodontic work is quite necessary for health and medical reasons, and if not treated, problems in that area can be absolutely debilitating.
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 11:52 am 6. Oaktown Girl said …
When the shoe’s on the other foot, it sure looks different, doesn’t it.
Hi Zeus - yeah, that’s my point exactly. I was, as is everyone here, totally familiar with the behavioral aspect of the Ugly American, and certainly consider myself, in general, to be one of the “Good” Americans, behavior and attitude-wise, that is.
That’s the point of my essay here - the prejudice I didn’t know I had. It never even crossed my mind that the Brits wouldn’t change their “snaggle” teeth for ours in a New York minute. And yet, suddenly, here that very possibility was right in my face. It literally did stop me in my tracks when I read it.
On the surface, a mundane topic. Scratch the surface a little, and there’s all kinds of cultural, economic, and historic gems in there just dying to be deeply explored springing from that “mundane” subject. That’s why it stopped me in my tracks.
That’s still one hell of a funny Simpsons bit, though!
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 2:30 pm 7. James Killus said …
There are smiles and there are smiles. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that American smiles come under scrutiny when the “Miss America smile” (and beauty contestants generally) is so stereotyped and strange. For that one, you not only have to have perfect teeth, but perfect gums, since the smile has to be wide enough to show the whiteness entirely, all the way to pink.
So to speak.
(Note: I’ve never had cosmetic work, but I can cause strong men to leave the room by relating the saga of my wisdom teeth extractions. Heck, even the tale of my first baby teeth loss is pretty harrowing.)
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 2:37 pm 8. Seattle said …
“Ouch. Well, as long as they keep allowing American fast food joints into their countries, they’ll be catching up with us in short order.”
Did I mention my astonishment the other day when I was perusing the IMDB site for Gerard Depardieu and found this:
Underwent emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery in Paris, France, following a heart attack. (10 July 2000)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000367/bio
I didn’t know there were more than 4 arteries that you could bypass into the heart…. ; )
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 3:44 pm 9. Oaktown Girl said …
James - can we make you our official WAAGNFNP Tough Guy? I tell you what, those chicken hawk Rethugs better not even think about trying to accuse us of being “soft”. (I realize your wisdom tooth story was probably not about being “tough”. We’ll just spin it that way for media purposes).
Excellent point about the “Miss America” thing. And according to wiki, that train wreck (negatively impacting males and females alike) has been around since 1921.
Another good point about perfect gums. Your smile definitely can’t be too “gummy”. And don’t forget the yummy Vaseline on your teeth so your lip doesn’t stick to your teeth at the crucial moment.
Seattle - Depardieu having emergency heart surgery - quintuple bypass, no less - puts a slight damper on the stereotype of the French all being in good health because of the red wine and generally healthier diet. But I bet that pansy French surrender monkey took general anesthesia like a wimp. Note to media: Our James could have knocked that sucker out with a mere local, if he even took any anesthetic at all!
Most of you already know this is one of my favorite American smiles:
Excellent. -
on 08 Aug 2007 at 4:13 pm 10. Seattle said …
I don’t know…Depardieu kind of breaks the mold….on what level I’ll leave you to decide:
“…He also confessed to traveling on his motorcycle to the hospital for his bypass operation.”
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 6:19 pm 11. James Killus said …
The wisdom tooth story includes the discovery that I get violently ill from narcotics, so I pretty much have to rely on aspirin-like medications. The narcotics reaction is a fairly common side-effect, but it’s not one you really want to experience immediately after having your gums cut open.
I’ve had general anesthesia twice; neither time for dental work. The first time was for hernia surgery and as I was coming out of it, before I had my wits about me, the nurse had ignored my chart and given me morphine, so I spent the next two hours trying desperately not to throw up, because that would have meant they’d keep me overnight, and because, well, I’d just had hernia surgery.
But “tough guy?” Heck, at my dojo, I’m not even in the top 5. In fact, I’m not even in the top 5 who are over 50.
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 8:02 pm 12. JP Stormcrow said …
I also notice that dentists in the US are generally set on you keeping your teeth even when you are not so inclined. (other than wisdom teeth) I guess this is a good thing, but more than once I was right there with “Just pull the son-of-a-bitch!”, but no, they felt compelled to try and fix the problem. Most notorious was a nighttime drive through Kentucky after visiting a friend at Oak Ridge, biting down on a wad of paper towels deciding whether to stop a Trooper and have him just shoot me or take me to a hospital for emergency oral surgery. (To complete my trifecta of nightmare drives through Kentucky (a chunk of my Encounters drive went through there) I had a drive back to Houston after Thanksgiving where I spent half the night creeping through a Kentucky icestorm on the shoulder at 5 miles per hour desperately seeking traction on the gravel.)
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on 08 Aug 2007 at 9:54 pm 13. Oaktown Girl said …
But “tough guy?” Heck, at my dojo, I’m not even in the top 5. In fact, I’m not even in the top 5 who are over 50.
1. It’s true. Someone emailed the link to a YouTube clip of WAAGNFNP Brother James getting his ass totally at the dojo by what appeared to be a 7 year old.
2. James needs a crash course on “messaging” and handling the media. (Kiera - how soon can you free up a classroom in The Trunk?) Seriously. This honesty bull crap is going to be a major setback for the Primaries if we don’t get it under control.
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on 09 Aug 2007 at 9:27 am 14. James Killus said …
First of all, he wasn’t 7; we don’t have 7 year olds at our dojo. He was 11.
Second, he wore me down. The problem with 11 year olds is that, when you thrown them, they come back at you without getting any more tired. It’s not fair. I believe that they should have to train with at least 50 lbs of weights strapped to their legs, ankels and waist.
Finally, it’s my position that honesty is a good strategy; it confuses the opposition. Also, I am a terrible liar.
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on 09 Aug 2007 at 10:14 am 15. JP Stormcrow said …
Also, I am a terrible liar.
That’s what would you like us to believe. -
on 09 Aug 2007 at 10:19 am 16. Oaktown Girl said …
The problem with 11 year olds is that, when you thrown them, they come back at you without getting any more tired. It’s not fair. I believe that they should have to train with at least 50 lbs of weights strapped to their legs, ankels and waist.
Fair enough.
Also, I am a terrible liar.
Tell it to The Trunk. But OK, we’ll focus your media relations training on you keeping your yap shut. A gargantuan task, I realize, but that’s what duct tape’s for. And at our WAAGNFNP press conferences, we’ll just make sure you’re safely Re-Trunked until it’s over.
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on 10 Aug 2007 at 10:58 pm 17. Porlock Junior said …
Another annoying thing about Americans, which seems to have got oddly little publicity: We like to express approval of the insightful thing being said, without interrupting to say “M3 T00!1!”, by chuckling a little.
It surprised and rather irritated Richard Dawkins when I heard him speak in San Francisco a few years ago. Why were all these people in the audience laughing when he wasn’t saying anything funny? I’m sure he’s not the only one.
Perhaps he and everyone else have got used to it by now. But do people ever get really used to the way Americans speak and act?
OT: I’ve complained a couple of times about the comment software refusing to recognize that I’ve entered the Secret Number with my comment. Tonight it seems to work, even when I do more than one comment a day, which seemed to be the problem before. Hoping it’s permanent.
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on 11 Aug 2007 at 12:05 am 18. Oaktown Girl said …
Porlock - I never thought much about that laughing thing before. It’s behavioral, but it is smile-related, therefore tooth-related (even if one has no teeth).
Tonight it seems to work, even when I do more than one comment a day, which seemed to be the problem before. Hoping it’s permanent.
We won’t know if there’s been a real breakthrough for Brother Porlock on the WAAGNFNP blog until tomorrow, when we wake up to see, even after multiple comments, that you have not completely broken the blog.
You may have already tried this, but the only thing I know that seems to work when the captcha refuses to let you in no matter what is to just copy your comment to save it, refresh the website (or open it up again in a new tab), paste your comment back in and try again.
The next step up on the “blog software is dissing me” hierarchy is having your comment accepted, but it goes straight into the Spam bucket, at which point you have to post another comment asking, “WTF? Can someone please check the spam filter for me?” Anyway, we really appreciate your patience and perseverance.
