why do americans seem to always have thick necks in photographs?

000999@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 53 points –

Both men and women. Is it to do with the way they smile/pose for the camera or something? Seriously, I can almost tell someone is American by the way their neck looks in a photo

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HEY OP, YOU CAN'T JUST ACCUSE AN ENTIRE NATION OF HAVING THICK NECKS AND DISAPPEAR WITHOUT ELABORATING. DO I HAVE A THICK NECK!?

Can you share example pictures what you mean?

I was hoping for that comment. I'm lost.

I'm lost

See the problem here is that you aren't aware the americabad

As an american, I find this thread extremely entertaining but also perplexing. Now I want to see side-by-side comparisons of photos of americans and photos of non-americans. As others have said this is nothing I've ever noticed, but now I want to know if this is actually a thing or not.

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This is interesting. Even skinny Americans? I've never heard this, but I have heard you can tell someone is American because people from elsewhere don't lean on things when standing.

People from other countries also usually don't expose their entire set of teeth when smiling...

I am an american and I have lived here my whole life, and I never got this. Almost every person I know IRL except me smiles with all their teeth out like a fucking demented shark or something, and if I dont show my teeth like Im about to bite someone then other people chide in like "come on you arent even smiling!". For some reason americans just bare all their teeth like dogs when we smile and its disgusting and weird

Would it be wrong to assume you are self-conscious about your teeth (crooked, missing, etc)? This is the case with every American I know that doesn't like to smile on photos, although sometimes they're people who are happy to do full-burst laughter showing all in small trusted group settings.

Im not particularly conscious and I do sometimes smile with some teeth showing, like if I was laughing super hard and my teeth just happened to be showing I wouldnt try to hide it. But if I am, say, taking a group photo, I dont smile with all my teeth out. Its just weird to me.

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Two jokes I can make out of this. Which could dig at either US or EU/UK

  1. I paid for it, I'm gonna show it off.

  2. Have you seen the British?

dig at either US or EU/UK

Seems like that's the whole point of Lemmy.

Well, it is federated and the main lemmy.ml site is full of tankies in disguise. So I imagine it spreads.

If we could get rid of the corruption and feel some sense of duty and control over our countries again instead of land mattering more than people when it came to the voting process, and getting fucked every which way from Saturday in the process, maybe people would feel less apt to dig.

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They don't lean on things? Even if there's a perfectly sturdy horse or fence.right next to you?

Horses, cows, fences, houses, nothing. They stand on two legs like bipedal humanoids.

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Car culture is huge in the United States. Most folks I know drive everywhere even if it's only a mile away. Add fast food drive-throughs like McDonald's to this and you get obesity and thick "necks".

This guy has literally no neck, not a fat neck. He can't look over his shoulder because his skill is attached to it.

Your mum's skill is attached to her shoulders lmao

Her skill skull is attached to her neck, not her shoulders.

Alright, that one took me a second, but I'm keeping it.

He looks like Patrick from SpongeBob.

hey dont take ed down this road.

he is a very sensible, loving human beeing.

on the search for love....

(yes, my girlfriend likes to watch trash tv... and yes, I am rethinking sometimes my choices)

In addition to being overweight, there is the problem of your posture getting stuck in a position if you are always in that position. You know how in other countries people take public transit and walk or bike places? This allows the posture to reset after sitting at an office. Americans never get that chance because they go from sitting at the office to sitting in their car to sitting on their couch. So their neck and shoulders never really gets much of an opportunity to not be pushing kind of forward. Add to this that they are often looking down at their phones and you can imagine how the combination of these two postures can result in a thicker appearing neck.

Edit to also add to this: Americans are also on the higher end of the average height globally. This means if you take a picture of one, there is a better chance the American will be looking somewhat downwards at the camera, which also increases the size of the neck. If you interact with Americans in real life and you are shorter than their average height, this perception trick will also happen. It's one of the many insidious ways we maintain our dominance over other countries. 🦅🦅🦅🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

Guessing football and wrestling in high school, growth hormones in their meat, and an element of obesity. These are all guesses though, not shitting on the yanks.

When i was 16, two of my friends went to study in america for a year or so. They went individually and didn't know eachother. One of them cam back obese and the other one was shredded and gained like 20kg.

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This is me. Competitive swimming and wrestling as a youth, along with many years of rock climbing.

My upper back and neck is disproportionately larger than my lower torso and legs.

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How many different populations have you observed this in? I've never observed this.

Because my trapezii are fuckin' jacked. Straight yoked. I've been working on my sternocliedomastoid form for years with some serious cervical reps. Glad someone noticed. blushing-engels

You're looking at football fans, who obsess over overeating and competitive sports. While the US has a lot of those, they are not the only demographic.

The neck is relatively thin compared to the grossly obese body