A sincere investigation into a vain phenomenon

The blog has been quiet for awhile, and I am not completely sure that this is blog-worthy, but I have to put it SOMEWHERE. I am going to address the issue of "duck lips," a phenomenon that has a huge following among women (and men) who post pictures of themselves on social networking sites. So what exactly is this? Why do people do it? How did it become such a universal face to make? The look of duck lips comes across as slightly arrogant, a little confrontational, but also something people do to accentuate their sexuality, obviously to draw attention to the face and the lips. The face also seems to be something that accompanies a scene...to put it simply, it says: "Look at me, I am holding this bottle of Dom, this small dog, this camera, etc."  Over the next month, I will address this through a series of images and "selfies," as they are called today.

First, I will break down the anatomy of the duck lips:

To do this, it requires the flexing of muscles around the mouth in order to purse the lips..

Side view

The complete look also requires a certain look for the eyes. Lets say, for now, the face requires looking straight into the camera. 

You can alter the expression of the eyes from neutral, as shown above, or slightly annoyed.

As I was practicing my best duck lip face, I realized that it is not an easy face to make....I rarely use my mouth muscles in this way, and I hazard to say that making a really good one takes some practice. You might end up looking bewildered:

                                   or just completely silly, resulting in a failed duck lip face:

After this research was completed I realized the face is very similar to the look of sipping a hot cup of coffee or tea.

As the face-making continued, I started to get "better" at making the face and started adding props. 

Note the third and final element of the standard duck lips selfie, the extended arm. 

Please check back soon as I continue to investigate the elements of this far-reacing face.