This is so super interesting Eve! I've honestly never thought about it this way, but now that you've mentioned it I wonder if lots of people suffer from the same fear.
I can understand it though, even with your photo above, I think you're smiling because of your eyes... but I don't know for sure... and that feels sinister in itself.
It definitely goes some way to potentially explaining why some people have been so deadset against masks. I've never quite understood it myself.
Finnish people don’t smile at strangers so it’s not like we out here hiding our beautiful smiled, we all frowning behind the mask 😝 We don’t have school uniform and no-one (aside from medical professionals etc) would ever wear a mask, so anything mandatory like that feels so wrong to us I think.
It sounds like it's so much deeper than that. It's not that you simply don't like it, it sounds like it causes a deep discomfort in you.
interesting, maybe times have changed. I have never been to Finland, but I lived in Stockholm for almost five years back in the mid-sixties, and the ones that consistently smiled at me were "finska flickor". That was at dance clubs. The ones I knew were student nurses at the Karolinska. Back then, one became a close friend and we went out with each other, she was from Turku.
Masks - we even have to wear FFP Masks in Austria (also in Germany). I only wear it where I legally have to. I hope this spook is over soon and we can be leading a normal life again.
Sweden is more ”European” than Finland, especially Stockholm, and the people moving there are not the typical Finns probably 😅 Obviously these are just stereotypes.
I think it’s gonna take a lot before we can live a normal life again. Well, I’m not normal to begin with so doesn’t effect me as much.
"not normal" - well, I can say the same - and others have said that about me as well. As far as Swedes are concerned, they are different in different places as well. I found they were a lot friendlier anywhere else but Stockholm. People from Lapland cross over into Finland, and I did find them very nice also. Leena was very much Finnish, she also spoke several languages fluently. When she mentioned she was looking at a job with Finnair, I encouraged her to pursue this (better than changing bedpans, lol). Later I emigrated to Canada, but we corresponded for a while after, and she was happy in her new job.
btw, I worked as side job at a nightclub on the waterfront, and there were many Finns that went there. So I learned some swearwords from them, so together with Hungarian ones I have a repertoire to use when I am pissed off.