I think it’s interesting that when I post a picture of myself I tend to get complimented with words like cute, adorable and precious. Not that I don’t like it - I LOVE it! - but it does seem that some people fit the “cute” template particularly more than regular “pretty” or whatever. I always wondered if it was because I was a fatty, or just because I look quite young. (I’ve had people think I’m anywhere down to 14, and I still get asked “are your mummy or daddy in?” at the door, even though I’m nearly 22). What do you think? Do you tend to get called cute when you’re called anything at all?
I mean, I could understand if so, because in terms of evolution we’re supposedly programmed to find chub adorable. Babies are chub and we gotta mother ‘em (again supposedly). Puppies are chub and oh ma gawd puppies. We even tend to pick rounded, soft-featured toys over long skinny ones, Woody from Toy Story excluded.
This is only really a problem when I hear some women obsess about how they’re only cute, as if it’s a very specific category separate from being sexual or dateable - not to mention just being taken seriously. This begs the question of infantilisation but, in my culture anyway, I don’t think adult cuteness is really about that. I think the assumptions are: kindness, an easy-going nature, being huggable, etc. Girl-next-doorishness. Whereas the assumptions for a “beautiful” or “sexy” person can have plenty of positive characteristics attached - so you learn in basic psych at school - but quite often negative ones creep in there too: she’s probably a bitch, a slut, a maneater, self-centred, a bimbo, manipulative… and this kind of assumption comes from women as well as men, obviously*.
I guess, all things considered, in this society you’re better off being “cute” than anything else?
P.S. *This excludes all you body-posi feminist wonders who are way past this ridiculous way of thinking (hopefully!)
P.P.S. I use a ton of question marks because I wanna hear your opinions, dawgs.
I have often wondered if “cuteness” is attached to short people more often than not, because admittedly I associate the two things and in recent years I’ve been questioning why I am so ready to cutify people shorter than I. Though, let’s face it… I am a tall person and most of my friends and partners have been shorter than me. I’ve never been described as cute, and if anyone tried I’d laugh in their face! Usually I just feel like godzilla beside everyone I know, and I don’t say that to be negative because most of the time it feels good.