Will This Pose Make You Look Cuter?

May I have your attention please, selfie fiends: Japan has hatched a hot new photography trend called the "cavity pose," which is all about people posing like someone with a toothache might, putting his or her hand up to one cheek while looking sad. As reported in the DailyMail, young Japanese people are cavity posing all over the place, in the hopes that something about the pose makes them look slimmer and cuter.

The cavity pose is the latest in a line of strange pose trends, including the "sparrow face" (wide eyes and alleged bird-like mouth) and, of course, the original "duck face." Are you skeptical? I was too. Particularly since in a lot of the photos floating around, people are using their hand to cradle their opposite cheek. Has this ever actually happened in real life? If you were to cradle your aching jaw, wouldn't you use the corresponding hand?

I decided I to try the cavity pose myself, so you don't (necessarily) have to. For reference, here is a quick pic I took using PhotoBooth, first take, just this morning. Not my best work, but not the worst.

And here's my "cavity pose" (that's "mushiba no poozu" or 虫歯のポーズ in Japanese, according to Kotaku.com). Although many of the examples of cavity pose littering social media sites and Japanese magazines feature smiling people, I tried to stay true to the toothache-stricken intent by looking a little sad. I'm not sure that my face looks smaller, or cuter. This selfie looks kind of affected, truth be told. I take quite a few selfies but I'm not too compelled to try do this one ever again.

At the end of the day, I'm left wondering: do people spend much time in the "cavity pose" position even when they actually are suffering from cavities? There's gotta be less careful hand positioning, and much more grimacing and drool. In fact, I've had a number of cavities myself and I don't think I've ever struck it before. Only time will tell whether this gimmicky practice is just another internet flash in the pan, or whether the "cavity pose" is flattering enough for the ages.

Image: sasaki_arisa / Twitter