Yeah. Well, maybe not strictly less attractive, more that the look is tongue-in-cheek. I’ll concede that maybe they underestimate how unattractive it is, but I think the majority of them aren’t doing it to look more attractive. It’s either, as Montro says, strictly ironic or at least they know that that no one is taking it as a serious attempt to look prettier.
And I’m also on board with “hotornot is till a thing???” Is ratemypoo still alive?
I don’t think sense of humor has anything to do with it.
I completely agree with this.
I don’t get what you guys mean by duckface. The pictures in this thread are all of very different, well-known looks that enterprising fashionistas put a lot of time into choosing. For example, in GrumpyBunny’s pic, the girl on the left is doing Ferrari, while the girl on the right is going for the softer La Tigre.
It’s intended for posting pictures of yourself.
I’ve never been there myself, but it was a big deal in the news for a while in the early 2000s. It was intended as a way to find out if you’re physically attractive to other people. Now it appears to be another Tinder clone.
I always thought girls who did this were Marylin Monroe wannabes.
Monroe may have done it on occasion, but Angelina Jolie lives there.
I wouldn’t be surprised if duckfacers actually got rated higher than non duckfacers. Not just on that site, but any site that caters to attention-seekers and people looking for hook-ups. You don’t have to believe me, but common sense supports what I’m saying. If the duckface didn’t help a certain demographic succeed on the internet, it is unlikely it would be so pervasive.
Here’s my theory for why the duckface is so prevalent on Hot or Not: Women who pose like this give off a more “Whoohoo! Look at me and my cute self having fun!” vibe that appeals to men in the mood for mindless internet flirting. A woman who submits a pic of herself with a normal smile risks looking like she takes herself too seriously; she doesn’t look as “fun”, carefree, and game for flirting. Because a duckfacer hides her desire for validation behind a pretense of silliness, she is more approachable to men, especially the type that 1) are into browsing hookup sites and 2) easily intimidated by non-silly women (you know, the type who expect men to have something going for themselves before sleeping with them). There is probably a lot of overlap between these two groups.
I also think the duckface has become such a habit that people don’t even know they are doing it. My niece visited me a couple weeks ago, and took a selfie. The girl succumbed to the duckface unconsciously. It may be that people under a certain age see and do it so often they don’t even see it anymore. So the unattractiveness of it eludes them.
You’re all way over thinking this.
You must be new.
Good god, people, it’s just a silly face people make at the camera just like sticking out your tongue.
Memes are complicated. They are part of the modern, more complicated popular culture. They have phases, or reactions and counter reactions.
Your explanation is clearly too simple, as it’s falling short of explaining the phenomenon. You’re stuck not only on the initial meaning of duckface, but also the initial meaning of HotOrNot.com.
Yes, at one point, duckface was done just to be more attractive. It was just a pouty look being overdone to the point of ridiculousness. But we’re well past that stage. Yes, it was commonly made fun of, but we’re past that stage, too.
It was done in a mocking, ironic way, as a sort of parody of attractiveness or as a parody of gangsta culture. We’re past that, too.
We’re in the post-ironic phase, which is rather complicated to explain. This somewhat takes it back to its origins, but not quite, because the past usage still informs how it is interpreted. It’s being used intentionally to imply what is in the other phases.
Yes, it involves projecting an attitude of being fun and playful. Yes, it involves projecting that you don’t care what other people think. But it also involves acknowledging that you do care, and are insecure about how you would look if you weren’t doing it. Listen to the woman here who says she still does it, and you can hear all those things in her explanation.
And, of course, it is in a way being done to be attractive. But not in the “judge my picture” way. That’s not what HotOrNot is about anymore.
I am always fascinated by this reaction. It’s as if pop culture has become too complicated to be understood, so you retreat back to the simplicity of the way things used to be.
Sorry, you’re wrong. If it were just a silly face, it would carry no meaning and would be no more popular than any other silly face.
And it wouldn’t have become a meme.
Every single thing you describe here is exactly the same as in-jokes, trends, counter-trends etc that I went through as a kid, teen and twenty-something amongst my friends, schoolmates, and college gang, all before the internet existed. The only difference is that things are now played out on a larger scale. You youngsters aren’t even close to being as unique as you think you are.
I agree with what you say, Princhester. Here’s the thing, though. Each generation, age cohort, call it whatever you want, has a desire to regard themselves as special. In order to do this, those things which went before them must be cast off, belittled, ignored. Only by doing this can they create something which is uniquely theirs.
It was laughable back in the day to read stories about kids communicating through text-talk almost as though it was some sort of secret code their parents couldn’t decipher. This is just an example of coming up with something “new” to be able to call it their own. You see the same thing reflected in the music that is popular, styles of clothing that are worn, hair length, etc, etc. Each new generation does this, each new generation must do this to establish itself, to differentiate itself. Hipness, coolness, with-it-ness. Identity. See? Even the adjectives I use to describe it date me. It will never end.
Actually I’m probably overstating the case in saying the only difference is scale.
Another difference is that memes now have a greater degree of historical permanence: most of our antics were more transient since they were verbal and also photography wasn’t as ubiquitous. I don’t mean that the trends and jokes moved quicker, I just mean that there is simply no record anywhere of what we were saying since none of it was written down or saved on some server somewhere.
Another difference is third party observability: us middle aged folks can observe (even if not convincingly participate in) a substantial amount of young person chatter just by reading stuff online. I realise that there is a lot going on between younger people that is less observable, using person-to-person platforms.
However, when I was a kid, essentially all the trends and chatter was done away from prying adult eyes and ears, although I have no doubt that my parents, teachers etc knew far more about what we were up to than we realised.
Totally and completely nailed it. The only thing different is the technology.
Sticking out ones tongue is fun and cute. Making duckfaces is stupid and retarded.
Time takes care of that problem.
Both are fun and cute as well as stupid and retarded depending on context.
When film cameras and developing got cheap enough that wasting some snap shots on a silly picture or two wasn’t too much of a waste of money, the old codgers of the time probably hated it.
Now that everyone pretty much has a camera in their pocket at all times and photography is pretty much free once you have a smartphone anyway, the codgers hate the latest silly thing.
Today’s kids will hate the next thing just as much in thirty years.
If she ducks, she fucks, amirite? UP TOP!
C’mon bros, don’t leave me hangin’. Really? Nobody?
