'Cavity Pose' Latest Photo Trend

Aug. 5, 2014— -- Why on earth would someone fake having a cavity? No, not to get out of work. To look good in a photo, of course.

The "cavity pose" -- when a person poses for a photograph with their hand to cheek as if in pain from having a cavity -- is the latest craze in Japan. A photo taken and tweeted by by user @swe_etie -- and re-tweeted 36,000 times -- showed the covers of six Japanese magazines all with cover models in very similar poses.

Is it all tooth decay? @swe_etie asked?

Doubtful. It seems the "cavity pose," as it's being called, is meant to make a person's face look slimmer in photos. Seeing as half the face is covered by a hand, it does indeed look slimmer. But according to Kotaku, the site that first noticed the trend. "The gesture also makes one's face appear smaller, and small faces are considered attractive in Japan."

Judging from all the social media attention cavity pose is getting, duck face has reason to feel threatened.