Thoughts on Cute
What we know is that cute comes from the maternal feeling to nurture infants. Big head, big eyes placed in the middle of the head, stubby limbs, helplessness and vulnerability is the trick to get mothers to nurture their babies. So basically, babies are cute, baby animals are cute, figures with big heads and large eyes are cute but when we get more abstract it gets harder.
We have sweet, nice, pretty, beautiful, how do you measure something that is cute as opposed to something that is sweet. There is no universal measurement for cute. Although, we tend to believe we know what is cute and what is not.
My way of measuring cute is to think to myself ‘when I see this, do I think this is cute? or this is pretty? or this is so beautiful?’. I think most people like cute but have different levels of tolerance for it. For example I think people with lower tolerance would like something basic like Disney (being safe here) and people with high tolerance would like things like San-X where the faces have become so abstract but still formulated to be cute.
Liking cute is like loving gourmet food. It’s a passion and should not be taken for granted.
Kitty Shame
I can’t get over this:
BANGKOK, Thailand – Thai police officers who break rules will be forced to wear hot pink armbands featuring “Hello Kitty,” the Japanese icon of cute, as a mark of shame, a senior officer said Monday.
Read the whole article here.
Via BoingBoing
Miffy is spiffy
I’ve been a Miffy fan for a long time and recently learned about her awesome maker Dick Bruna.
The Cute Factor
A must read article for any cute addict: The Cute Factor
Moomin
The Moomin trolls are a cute little bunch. Books and animated series by Swedish author Tove Jansson
As cute as cute can be
So following my last post I spent most of the night looking through the incredible, nostalgic images on CSA images.
I eventually gave in and bought four of their books from Amazon.
The first three are produced by the very cool Pop Ink which I think is a company run by CSA images.
The last one is…..
There’s a great future in plastics. I got it used but in great condition through Amazon.
I can’t wait to get these books, they are going to be so helpful in my research.
Bossy Bear
David Horvath creator of Ugly Dolls has a children’s book coming out called Bossy Bear. It’s so cute I want to tear my own hair off.
And Everything Nice 