Talk:Glasgow smile

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Glasgow smile article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

This article was nominated for deletion. Please review the prior discussions if you are considering re-nomination:

keep, 18 November 2009 (UTC), see discussion.
keep, 02:38, 23 July 2008, see discussion.

While the biographies of living persons policy does not apply directly to the subject of this article, it may contain material that relates to living persons, such as friends and family of persons no longer living, or living persons involved in the subject matter. Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons must be removed immediately. If such material is re-inserted repeatedly, or if there are other concerns related to this policy, please see this noticeboard.

Crime and Criminal Biography: Organized crime High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Crime and Criminal Biography articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Crime and Criminal BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject Crime and Criminal BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Crime and Criminal BiographyCrime-related
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by the Organized crime task force (assessed as Mid-importance).

Scotland Mid‑importance

	Scotland portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Scotland, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Scotland and Scotland-related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ScotlandWikipedia:WikiProject ScotlandTemplate:WikiProject ScotlandScotland
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

United Kingdom Low‑importance

	United Kingdom portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United Kingdom, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.United KingdomWikipedia:WikiProject United KingdomTemplate:WikiProject United KingdomUnited Kingdom
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Photo Request

"Wikipedians in Scotland may be able to help!" sounds like a good idea, haha24.171.118.207 (talk) 01:08, 15 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

X smile

I think this is a common construction "X smile" referring to a slit throat, where X is a place thought to be rough, dangerous, or seedy. I've heard the phrase attributed to various New York boroughs (e.g. Bronx smile, Brooklyn smile). Applejuicefool 19:25, 14 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I only ever heard Chelsea smile. I do get the feeling though that this is more Urban Dictionary fodder than a true Wikipedia article, but it can stay.--h i s ^{s p a c e} _{r e s e a r c h} 11:26, 25 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've also only ever heard of a Chelsea smile. Perhaps there's perceived overlap with the Glasgow kiss. Google seems to bear me out regarding the popularity of "Chelsea smile", so maybe this article should be renamed... 86.134.195.178 (talk) 15:30, 30 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with this reading. I lived a year in Glasgow (1997) and hung out with a varied bunch of locals. All were proud about how tough Glaswegians are in general. The Glesga kiss (=headbutt) was a commonly used expression, and always on your mind in any situation involving drunks or late nights. The Glesga grin/smile I've heard a few times referenced, once explicitely mentioned as a translation from Chelsea grin --- but I've never seen anybody mutilated as such, nor seen as local newspaper entry, nor had anybody else seen one [including a policeman] while I've seen any number of men with obviously-broken noses. The west of scotland then had a serious knife problem compared with the rest of the UK (don't know statistics now), horrific stabbings with screwdrivers etc were staple newsitems.--92.232.44.174 (talk) 11:06, 28 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Something tells me that should not be Chelsea Fans... 209.148.149.19 (talk) 06:35, 18 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I removed that bit. Jfire (talk) 17:57, 18 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I myself am from England where in some areas the phenomenon is referred to as a Birkenhead Grin. --Jupiter Optimus Maximus (talk) 14:26, 28 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure that I saw a mention of the glasgow smile in the laughing magician john constantine story arc. It's in the beginning; a small group mention a group of men who go around in a van, kidnapping people, and asking which football team they support, giving the victim the smile if they give the wrong team. Could someone check this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.156.153.142 (talk) 22:51, 28 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Changes

Among other changes, I removed coincidental non-examples. I doubt the creators of Ryuk had the smile in mind when creating the character. Lots42 (talk) 17:28, 15 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

...played a part in her death along with her body being cut into two

FTA:

In the murder of the Black Dahlia, it was noted that the body was given a Glasgow smile, which played a part in her death along with her body being cut into two.

Surely being cut in two is the thing which kills you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.67.210.187 (talk) 16:35, 31 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I edited that to make it a bit clearer. Noble (talk) 07:53, 12 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Rename to Chelsea smile?

Chelsea smile would, to me, seem to the more common term. Also it wins googlefight 467000 results to 145000 results[1].

Cheer up Glasgow, you'll always have the kiss. Artw (talk) 01:05, 19 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'd agree with Chelsea. And I wouldn't mess with The Krays - even now. --Dweller (talk) 13:11, 19 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Glasgow smile is part of the whole Glasgow gang culture which dates back over 100 years. The chelsea smile is a new phenomenon in comparison. Furthermore, the glasgow smile is a common sight in glasgow to this date even amongst young boys who never attend footballs games.94.195.141.219 (talk) 20:34, 26 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Long "pop culture" section

Per WP:IPC: In popular culture" sections should be carefully maintained and contain sourced examples demonstrating a subject's cultural significance. This page had turned into an excessive and unsourced list of pop culture items. I support a previous editor's deletion of it. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 15:06, 20 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Large sections of an article should not be removed during an AFD as this will tend to mislead editors about the nature of the material in question. Please tag the section for improvement or actually improve it. It seems quite likely that there is good sourcing available for the recent Heath Ledger/Joker example and so this will make a good start point for improvement. Colonel Warden (talk) 15:24, 20 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The material was removed before the article was nominated for AFD. It was restored during the AFD. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 16:50, 20 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about this, but worth mentioning to all of you...

This "smile" makes an appearance in the new game Brink (released Spring 2011). i don't know if it should be mentioned on the page but i had to look this up to see what it was about after seeing it in the game. In the game it's a scar (or rather facial feature) you can add to your character...--98.210.125.222 (talk) 19:00, 12 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Strangely enough, this type of facial deformity is available during character creation in the newish MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. Though how the residents of a galaxy situated 'Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away' would have happened to hear of the Glasgow Smile is anyone's guess. CynicalFelidae (talk) 08:31, 16 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Norwegian street gangs in London?

Is there such a thing? In Chelsea?

Bleed to death?

From what I learned in EMT school, there is not enough blood coming to the head for you to bleed to death. Indeed Wikipedia says that it takes at least one third of the blood lost for a person to bleed to death- which sounds unlikely for a face cut involving no major arteries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_to_death — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.65.160.114 (talk) 00:08, 2 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Also, I very much doubt that you could produce a scar reaching from the corner of the mouth to the ear by the method proposed, human skin being both too tough and too elastic. I can't gape wide enough to stretch my skin to anything close to tearing, and I haven't even had the corners of my mouth slit. //erik.bramsen.copenhagen — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.57.244.161 (talk) 22:53, 30 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"exsanguination"?

"exsanguination"? come on. i don't think that i need to look it up, but why not go with plain old "blood loss"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.229.9.117 (talk) 23:10, 10 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Man Who Laughs (1928 film)

The titular character in this film does not have a glasgow smile. He has a permanent freakish grin but no scars. Proof can be seen here, 52 minutes in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCD7YgK2Adk — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.36.119.130 (talk) 06:39, 21 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Credit card

I've heard of a variation of this where a credit card or similar object is used to create the scars. The card is placed horizontally either between the lips or front teeth and is then punched in. Alternatively the card is placed in the victims mouth and the victim is then punched or kicked in the stomach or testicles, forcing them to scream, apparently this forces a cut but I don't see how. --92.232.49.38 (talk) 05:37, 25 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hoax

It has been suggested that the 2nd part of the chelsea grin is actually a hoax and it seems reasonable: Making the victim scream by adding additional violence should not cause the cheek incisions to extend because even with a wide open mouth there is not enough stretch of the cheek to cause further rupture. It would make the most sense that the scars seen on Chelsea grin victims are "just" the initially performed cutting or by additional force applied to the cheek manually by the attacker.

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion:

Glasgow Smile.jpg

You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 12:23, 22 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]