This Article is From Sep 01, 2015

Miley Cyrus' Tongue Launches a Thousand Selfies

Miley Cyrus' Tongue Launches a Thousand Selfies

Miley Cyrus photographed while performing at the VMAs in 2013.

Los Angeles: On Sunday night, two icons of commercialized youth rebellion will come together: the MTV Video Music Awards and Miley Cyrus' tongue. (Also Read: Miley Cyrus, Feeling Empowered, Returns to the VMA Stage)

It was at the awards ceremony two years ago that Cyrus shocked viewers with a performance of We Can't Stop and Blurred Lines with Robin Thicke, a bawdy medley in which Cyrus repeatedly stuck out her tongue and other gyrating body parts.

This year, MTV has doubled down on the once squeaky-clean star by enlisting her to host its annual awards show. It is almost certain that, among the viewing public, tongues will wag.

Elsewhere, too. The Miley Effect (the Miley Virus?) has worked its way across the Internet, with legions of selfie-posters posing for the camera (often their own) with their tongues sticking out. Some of these photos have a sexualized aesthetic, but many more reveal tongues as playful accessories of those who feel, perhaps, a little silly for taking and sharing their own pictures. They think a funny face will help convey a tongue-in-cheekness.

Sarah Ramanuj, 24, doesn't remember when she began sticking her tongue out in photos. "It came to me naturally," she said. "And I've been called out on it, with friends saying, 'You have your tongue out in every single picture.'"

But it's a small way to give a sense of her personality. "In our generation, everything is judged through social media and I've always been a person who has a sense of humor and takes things lightly," she said.

D'Metrius Rice, 34, a visual artist in Baltimore who is inspired by theology and philosophy, found himself captivated by photos of women sticking their tongues out in selfies, so he began to take and collect screen shots of them. To share the bounty, he started the @TongueSelfie Instagram feed several months ago.

Rice gravitates toward "more pronounced, more drastic pictures," he said. "I think that goes back to iconography of my childhood: the Rolling Stones, Kiss logos, cartoon characters." (Sweepstakes, a Baltimore band, this year released an album called "Tongues Out." Rice supplied the cover art.)

There is a sexual quality that appeals to him, Rice said, but he also likes the way a tongue selfie punctures the airbrushed perfection so prevalent on the Web. Selfies, he said, "are officialized photos" and he respects people who are willing to thwart "restraint and calculation."

Alexandra Figueredo, 34, a marketing consultant in Miami, prefers a popular variation of the tongue selfie, which features people and their dogs - tongues extended.

Last year, when Figueredo adopted her dog, Javi, a Havanese, she created for him an Instagram account to help promote pet adoption. In surfing through other pet-feeds, she noticed many pet-owner tongue selfies being posted on Tuesdays with the hashtag #TongueOutTuesday.

Throughout the week, she and Javi pose for selfies and she chooses a Tuesday post. "I think he's the cutest when he has his tongue out because he's smiling," she said. (She noted that when she shares one of their tongue selfies on both her personal feed and her dog's feed, her dog invariably attracts more comments and "likes.")

For Stefanie Faivre, 24, there is little choice involved. She is almost incapable of simply smiling for a picture, she says. A yoga studio manager who lives in Old Tappan, New Jersey, Faivre crinkles her nose, raises an eyebrow or sticks her tongue out any time an iPhone lens focuses upon her.

"My boyfriend likes to take pictures of me when we are out in the city, at the shore or doing anything at all," she said. "I find it awkward. You know when you're in a public place and you see people posing to look pretty? It's so cheesy."

Still, she wants to look cute in her photos, and so she is careful not to show too much tongue. "I definitely moderate it," she said, "I mean, I'm not Miley Cyrus."
© 2015, The New York Times News Service
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