The bitchy resting face phenomenon

If you're not familiar with the term 'bitchy resting face' then take a seat and allow me to educate you. When your face is at rest, such as when you are not feeling any particular emotion, most people have a blank neutral expression. Some people, however, tend to have a default expression that makes them look like a bitch and hence the term bitchy resting face. See the photo above for clarification or type that term into a google images search and you will see an array of celebrities afflicted with this condition. As it happens, I am not one the unfortunate ones. No, my neutral expression tends to make me look sad, lost or confused depending on who you ask. Not that I have sat around trying to feel nothing just so I could ask people to judge my facial expressions. I do find, however, that when my face is at rest, that 'are you alright?' is a question I get asked a lot.

 I do happen to have another problem and I am not sure if I am the only one here. Perhaps I will discover there are more like me and we can form a support group. My problem is that people have grown so accustomed to my sarcastic quips that often my neutral tone of voice is interpreted as being sarcastic. I don't see anything wrong with a bit of sarcasm provided you don't use it maliciously. But my sarcasm is generally intended, it's not a happy accident that I have said something witty, usually it's well thought out. Unless you count the times something comes into my head and I find myself voicing it aloud before I've fully thought through the implications of saying it and factored in things like my audience and my location ( there are things you say to a friend that you probably shouldn't say to a colleague or stranger). Yet it still upsets me when I make an ordinary remark and people quip that they should expect such sarcasm from me. 

 There are also the times when I am explaining something to someone I don't know so well in what I believe to be a neutral tone ( no animosity intended) and they look at me like I've just been unbelievably rude. Truth be told, it worries me because in my own head I don't hear any sarcasm or snarkyness at that given point in time. It has lead me to wonder is there such a thing as bitchy resting voice and am I the only one who suffers from it ??

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