Can anyone put into words what the feeling behind sticking your tongue out is?
Within Western cultures, are there differences?
I think of it like flipping the bird, but for six year olds.
Because it IS such a juvenile gesture I always associate good humor/good nature with it: “Let’s be kids/friends now, ok?” But also, like flipping the bird it represents the end of a discussion. I’ll do it here when I recognize that my opinion is 180 degrees from someone else’s, but that I lack either the ground or the desire to do battle about it.
Of course, there’s always the neener neener factor–reserved for when people whom I consider idiots try to intimidate on a computer or flame my opinion. 
I’ve always thought of it as a symbolic “I spit on you” gesture, and thus the reason why it is considered extremely rude by some in the US.
Unless, of course, the tongue is extended in a flattened shape, with the tip gracing an arc upwards… in which case it means “I want to perform cunnilingus/fellatio upon you.”
I’m surprised that no one has made the connection between sticking out the tongue and infants spitting out food. It is a sign of rejection. Some folks think it is unforgivably rude while others think it’s cute. I think it depends on how personally you take it, and (as with many nonverbals) the context it is used in.
–SSgtBaloo
There’s the committed minority who believes it improves athletic performance.
http://img.slate.msn.com/media/48000/48665/Seidel_Jordan.JPG
In IM conversations, I use it more than the wink to indicate “just teasing” or “yeah, I’m being a brat here.”
As far as I know, it means “thhhbbbttttt!”
Yeah, I already know that, I believe I asked to “put into words” the feeling behind it.
Actually, it DOES work for Ronnie Belliard 
Yeah, I did… and the word was “thhhbbbttttt!”
Also, it was a joke. Lighten up.
Sorry - got the joke!
“thhhbbbttttt” is only one word.
I’ve been getting shitty in another forum.
and not a “feeling”.
I see it as a funny little piece of non-veral communication, always reserved for use amongst friends and often with a meaning something like “you may be right, but nuts to you anyway.” A friendly insult.
Sticking one’s tongue out at a stranger would be wierdly childish I think.
Since I was a little kid I’ve had what they call a “geographic” tongue–wide and deeply furrowed. Maybe I had some kind of Vitamin B deficiency during infancy…
When we were little kids and someone stuck their tongue out we would say, “No, thanks–I use toilet paper.” 
I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been able to stick my tongue out anyway, so it wasn’t an insult I commonly used.
Yet Robyn still married you? :eek:
Joking!!!
To quote my ex-wife, “When a girl sticks her tongue out at you, it means she wants to kiss you.”
Actually, this is precisely what cultural anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss says in one of his books (The Origin of Table Manners?).
Ordinarily I don’t agree with C L-S, being a Marvin Harris-Cultural Materialist type, but I think he (and you) have the right answer here.
Hmmm Hmm hmmmmm … eh? Would it be rude to beg a hijack to explain? H’aint ya got no tongue, boy?