I hate Psychology Today, but this article has some merit. I know people, including conservatives, who have a problem with Cruz’s face — not in esthetics but in that same lack of genuine expression the article is speaking about.
I feel like I may be a bad judge of this. I have been fooled by people because I tend to ascribe to them the best of emotions and intentions out of my own personality. But there are others who “knew something was off” right away about some sneaky people.
I never got a weird vibe about Cruz’s looks. But I’ve heard this before. And the article here asks you to google Ted Cruz smile and look at the images, so I did. I only saw 2 out of the first 100 pics of him smiling that had the eyes crinkling in joy. However, I could give him the benefit of the doubt: he may have a phony “photo smile” for the ones where he was posing for the camera. Lots of people do.
However, some catch him while he is speaking, and he can’t be thinking about cameras every second. These are the ones where he carries that expression like when he talks about his saintly parents or such, that “looking down on you people and giving my holy stump speech” look that he gets, when he pauses for emphasis a lot. It is not pleasant to listen to because it seems so canned and he seems to enjoy giving it. There is a disconnect.
I wish he were more real sounding. Maybe the non Duchenne smiles are telling people who read faces super well that he is not genuine. Or not: Rubio has big genuine smiles like Obama, which to me sets off my gaydar. Hetero men don’t smile that big.