Why You Have A Horrible Profile Picture

Duck face

In a survey of a couple of guys I know, it was determined that men universally hate the "duck face." The duck face is an expression women often make for the camera, and it tends to crop up in photos the subject herself has taken by extending her arm and pointing the lens at herself. The face is then accomplished by an exaggerated pursing of the lips, and is usually accompanied by a tilt of the head toward the camera. (Sometimes, the subject wears a shirt to accentuate her bosoms, or holds her hair provocatively.) While normally I'd say that two is too small of a sample to accurately gauge the opinion of all men, these two guys are pretty diverse (one is a banker from Texas and the other is a different kind of banker from a different part of Texas), and they both agree with me: the "duck face" is a "dumb face." Is Your Profile Picture Datable?

I feel strongly about this, so imagine my dismay when I came upon this horrifying bit of news from Yahoo!. It turns out that the duck face is highly strategic. Researchers (for a dating website, so it's slightly more science-y than my two friends' opinions) determined that compliments about a woman's mouth seem to work the best. "You have beautiful lips" really gets the motor going. Ergo, the duck face is really an attempt by women to fish for a compliment. And frankly, it's better to teach someone how to fish for a compliment than to just give them one (to paraphrase Jesus). Compliments Affect Your Self-Image

Other readily accepted compliments vary by country. For instance, British women like it when people say nice things about their legs, which they call "gams" or "drumsticks."

A word to the wise: I'd stick to comparing her lips to the lips of a glamorous celebrity like Eva Mendes, and I'd refrain from referring to a lady's lips as DSLs (within her hearing). It's a little tacky.

Despite evidence to the contrary, should we leave the duck face to Zoolander?

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