Wednesday, January 11, 2006

The Cute Factor

Denis Dutton is a philospher of art at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. I would like to quote this man on cute.

"Cute cuts through all layers of meaning and says, Let's not worry about complexities, just love me."

He's currently working on a book on darwinan aesthetics. (yendonaa?!)

Hmmm...

Now i'm not so sure about being called cute anymore, cause is this what i'm communicating through my visual cues?

A New York Times Report says - "Cute cues are those that indicate extreme youth, vulnerability, harmlessness and need, scientists say, and attending to them closely makes good darwinian sense."

Does it now?!

I mean so where does that leave us cute folk, eh? (i mean humility be side stepped for a minute here!)

If cuteness is distinct from beauty, emphasising rounded over sculpted, soft over refined, clumsy over quick - then i ain't cute no more. I wouldn't like to be called that please! Sniff...

But wait a minute - i chanced upon this little piece of information as well - further down the cute NYT report is says - "Even as they say a cute tooth has rational roots, scientists admit they are just beginning to map it's subtleties and source. New studies suggest that cute (images) stimuate the same pleasure centres of the brain aroused by sex, a good meal or psychoactive drugs," (which means i'm a trip for free?!).

So with these contradicting studies doing the rounds i now settle into a self debate of whether to take compliments of cute seriously. Here we are in a century where everything is pretty much out in the open. Everyone knows everything, give it to you straght, mince nothing. And yet, we still have our pockets where things aren't dished out to you straight. So what exactly is one saying when they say - "you're cute."

Is it the easy way out of saying you're not a bomb, but hey i like ya? Could it be a genuine response of what you're sending out as a visual cue (Do i make you feel like you just had a good meal? awh ma goodness gracious!)

So much to say that now, i understand one thing - the cute factor makes evolutionary sense! It's gotta, cause once you start catering to the balance of providing for it (the cute factor is said to stimulate ends of many unused synapses to provide, respond, care for, and protect!) then the evolution of the species is made whole in it ultimate journey toward the next steps in making progress.

Gawh i carry such a heavy weight on my shoulders - Atlas shrugged, i'm still in the fight, y'all!

So is the report true when it says, "Beauty attracts admiration and demands a pedestal; cuteness attracts affection and demands a lap. Beauty is rate and brutal, despoiled by a pimple. Cuteness is commonplace and generous.

What the...?!

Sigh.

So much for making evolutionary sense.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

See? Making evolutionary sense isexactly what it purports to be, A Kaiyamgulam Vaal!

Although cute makes evolutionary sense, it is in fact not cutting itself out to be a fair comparison 'tween beauty and itself. And yet it can make you couch into it's welcoming softness - almost like an AA meeting where you think you're not alone in the fight against it, but in the whle scheme of things you are. At the end, making evolutionary sense has it's bite -:).

Ah, fuggedeboudit!

Once the Conman said...

????
The post made absolutely no sense to me...

Unknown said...

I didn't expect it to conman - :)

Gadarene,
Kaiyamgulam is the place where the Vaal (sword in this case) made it's mark when Kochunni
(the t.v series places the old legend in the annals of celluloid!) our very own Indian Robin Hood perpetuated diplomacy of the heightened kind, as he displaced wealth from the rick to poor.

So today, if someone says iven oru kaiyamkulam vaal aa, it means that ne ivideyum nikyum pinne aveshyathinnum avideyum nikyum!

P.S - did you know amachi actually knew Kaiyamkulam Kochunni - he was famous during her time! He actually existed!

Hey Conman, this make any sense to ya? No, don't answer the question, i already know the answer... :)! Oh and by the way since you do get waxed, there is a high possibility than men are 'going' to find you a little more interesting and then that would pretty much say it all to a woman for first impression who gets a dekho. And hey, since you do call 'your' butt cute - i suggest a thesaurus for immediate remedy. Go girlfriend! Whoops!