Last night Hillary Clinton won the Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri, and Florida primaries, thus turning the corner on what will most likely be her victory lap to the Democratic nomination.

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Hillary, who has proven herself to be both spirited and optimistic (just look at that smile in the photo above, which was taken last night), took to the stage to enthusiastically thank her supporters, yet was still met with tweets like one this from Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough:

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Smile. You just had a big night. #PrimaryDay — Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) March 16, 2016

Folks (including me), clapped back at Joe, but the fact that he felt the need to take Hillary down a notch by reminding her how she should respond to her victory is, without a doubt, a perfect example of mansplaining—you know, that thing that happens when a man tells a woman how or what she should think or do, even though the woman is perfectly capable of forming an opinion herself.

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Said no one to a man ever. https://t.co/Z8LJyxIoMf — Caitlin Abber (@everydaycaitlin) March 16, 2016

Joe then tried to mansplain to me that he had been holding all of the candidates to the same standards, and even had, on occasion, called Bernie Sanders “grumpy.”

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We've called @BernieSanders grumpy for a year. @HillaryClinton is tough as hell. She doesn't need this fake outrage. https://t.co/pBGLsjoshT — Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) March 16, 2016

But here’s the thing: It is one thing to tell a woman what or how she should think, or to say “actually…” in that way that sounds like nails on a chalkboard to most women. But, actually...it is another thing to tell her what to do with her face because the face she is currently making displeases you.

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There's a big difference between when a man calls another man grumpy vs. when a man tells a woman to smile. https://t.co/iibHWX3Fko — Caitlin Abber (@everydaycaitlin) March 16, 2016

Unfortunately, that is just the type of mud that has been flung at Hillary Clinton from the get-go. Her entire career has been an uphill battle to prove herself, not only as a trusted politician, but also as a woman who has to toe the line between being too feminine and too aggressive. As Sally Kohn recently wrote on CNN, “Hillary Clinton is forced by the sexist norms and constraints of our society to overthink every word she utters and every move she makes. Sure, you can say that Hillary has a cautious or non-transparent personality if you want, but bear in mind that her personality was shaped by decades in politics and the public eye in the very crucible of constant sexist condemnation.”

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But now it’s 2016, and "feminist" isn’t the dirty word it used to be. More women than not agree that our faces aren’t here for anyone other than ourselves. Essay after essay has been written about why we don't like it when men tell us to smile. Memes have been made. Millennial heros Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, the creators and stars of Broad City, have perfected a response that most of us have found ourselves needing to deploy at some point.

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Sure, likability (and therefore, smiling) is an important part of becoming an electable candidate, and tweeting at a politician to smile isn't as overtly sexist as having some random stranger on the street say it to your face, but it's ultimately all one in the same.

We've said in so many bold, funny, and intelligent ways that we don't like it when men tell us to smile, and yet many men still do it anyway. And that’s the difference between one man calling another grumpy, and a man telling a woman to smile. It’s about the historical power dynamics at play, and what men have traditionally believed women were put here on earth to do for them. And the fact that they're still expecting—and in some cases, forcing—us to do it.

Even when women try to "womansplain" why we find telling us to smile so offensive, we’re still not taken seriously. Case in point: all these people calling me "sweetie" or telling me to calm down.

And then of course, when we get angry about it, it’s written off as “false outrage.” At this point, however, false outrage, or being wildly upset about what men consider “no big deal or “just a joke,” is starting to sound like another word used to take women down a notch: hysterical.

And we can all agree that that's a sexist thing to call a woman, right?

Caitlin Abber is the Senior Editor of WomensHealthMag.com and the producer and host of our podcast, Uninterrupted.

Caitlin Abber Caitlin Abber is a journalist, producer, and multimedia storyteller with work published at InStyle, Bustle, PRI, Women’s Health, and MTV.

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