Duck face is a selfie pose in which the lips are pressed together and pushed out in a pout, and the cheeks are usually sucked in. Wikipedia calls it “a photographic pose that is common on profile pictures in social networks.” It became a major fad by the early 2010s and drew a strong backlash, before being declared out of date in favour of newer poses.
Origin
| Date | Milestone | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 13, 1989 | Precursor: a Full House episode features a student nicknamed “Duckface” for making the pursed-lips expression | Know Your Meme |
| 1994 | In Four Weddings and a Funeral, Anna Chancellor’s character Henrietta is nicknamed Duckface for her pouty expressions | Wikipedia |
| 2001 | Zoolander’s “Blue Steel” look is later identified as an example of duck face | Wikipedia |
| May 13, 2006 | Urban Dictionary’s first definition of “MySpace Face” is submitted | Know Your Meme |
| Sep 13 (2006) | An Urban Dictionary definition of “Duck Face” describes the pose as “a two-lipped pout” | Know Your Meme |
| Mar 29, 2007 | A DeviantArt photo titled “The Duckface” is uploaded | Know Your Meme |
| Apr 24, 2009 | The AntiDuckFace blog launches, collecting photos of the pose | Know Your Meme |
| Dec 2014 | OxfordDictionaries.com adds “duck face” | NPR via MPR News |
| Oct 14, 2015 | HuffPost declares the “fish gape” the new duck face | HuffPost |
Know Your Meme dates the meme to 2006, when the pose was named on Urban Dictionary in the MySpace era; the 1989 and 1994 “Duckface” nicknames are earlier uses of the word as a nickname, not the name of the selfie pose. The pout itself is far older than the name: Wikipedia notes that self-portraits with a pouty face go back to Rembrandt, and fashion models have long used exaggerated pouts.
The Dictionary Moment
In December 2014 OxfordDictionaries.com added “duck face” in what its editors called the largest quarterly update in their history, adding definitions for 1,000 words, as reported by NPR. Its definition: “an exaggerated pouting expression in which the lips are thrust outwards, typically made by a person posing for a photograph,” labelled informal. Oxford Dictionaries editorial director Judy Pearsall told NPR that “average monthly usage of the term ‘duck face’ is 35 percent higher in 2014 than it was last year.” The term was added to the online dictionary only, not to the Oxford English Dictionary.
The Backlash
The mockery was aimed largely at young women. Wikipedia notes that as social networks became popular, “young women frequently made exaggeratedly pouty expressions,” and that the fad provoked “a strong negative reaction among some viewers.” Sites such as the AntiDuckFace blog existed to collect and ridicule the pose.
After Duck Face: The Fish Gape
By 2015 the pout was being called out of date. HuffPost reported on October 14, 2015 that the “fish gape” was the new duck face, a pose “all about a relaxed look,” with a loose jaw and slightly parted lips, arguing that “the duck face was too dramatic and intense.” See also #Selfie.