Oh, you're so cute!

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When I was five, my sister's friends would always call me 'cute,' but circa fourth grade, that stopped. I remember in seventh grade, some girls made a list of boys and how cute they were. After finding out about it and bugging my friend for a day or so, i found out that i was considered 'ok' by girls. Everyone thought my nose was my best feature. ???

― Tape Store (Tape Store), Saturday, 2 December 2006 01:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Cute seems a natural thing to call people on the online. I just really despised the word for about 3 weeks after I got this job at a diner waitressing half the time and dusting the country-time patchwork angel knicknacks up front. Jesus aitch, I heard so many dipshit arteriosclerotic red hat society bitches call all that tacky shit "cute" every goddamn mintue. I came home from work the first day and said, "OK, the work cute is now banned in this house."

Now I am over that and can describe my freakishly exponential crushed-upon folks as cute, fucking cute, totally adorable, good goddamn they are cute...I don't know how well the sailor talk and the fawning intertwine, but so goes my mouth.

― Abbott (Abbott), Saturday, 2 December 2006 05:59 (seventeen years ago) link

people use it really differently. don't like the hot term unless it is for someone i don't know - very random person, celebrity, person i would never... for me, cute is a simple and probably not adequate way to say you find the person hot/pleasant/adorable so feel some measure of affection for them etc. on top of wanting to xxxx them usually. and i rarely feel moved to point out things that are just plain old cute---babies, etc. seems unecessary, trite.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 2 December 2006 08:25 (seventeen years ago) link

C/H: Jenna Fischer?

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Thursday, 7 December 2006 06:20 (seventeen years ago) link

more hot, i'd say

― paresthesia hilton (get bent), Thursday, 7 December 2006 06:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I always feel like I'm quoting Seventeen magazine if I call someone "hot." The worst slangy for this idea was "fine," as in "he's so." It's as bad as styrofoam rubbing together.

― Abbott (Abbott), Thursday, 7 December 2006 07:09 (seventeen years ago) link

I had to do a lex-like googlerun to find her out. From the couple of eps I've seen she's a LOT like the british The Office receptionist - cute rather than hot, but somehow my brain got tricked into thinking she was hot. But cute, I think, then hot.

― Johnney B has zeros off the line (stigoftdumpilx), Thursday, 7 December 2006 08:50 (seventeen years ago) link

As far as I know, I've never in my life been called "hot". I usually get "handsome" and occasionally "cute", but never ever "hot". That said, I'm like Susan w/r/t using "hot" myself.

― Rodney and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (Rodney J. Greene), Thursday, 7 December 2006 09:17 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm not entirely sure who thinks I'm cute, who thinks I'm hot, and what the difference is.

I know what most women seem to think my best features are, though.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 7 December 2006 09:30 (seventeen years ago) link

I have NO IDEA what women see in me. (They usually don't, but that might just be my inner cynic talking). I think I'm more likely to be hot than cute, since tall-ish people like me are NEVER cute.

― Johnney B has zeros off the line (stigoftdumpilx), Thursday, 7 December 2006 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

So cute things, like baby animals and people who are charming/appealing/non-threatening/etc -- my mental shorthand for them is "snowglobe", meaning I want to have them around to enjoy their appealing qualities, and the pinnacle of that wd be to keep them in snowglobes on my dresser and shake 'em up whenver I want a laugh/coo. There are definitely strains of my own convenience and of ownership or...possession, and perhaps for some people also a little exclusivity too, ie, that no one else can partake of their cuteness?

I'm thinking that for me there's no sexual component, I don't want to get off with the cute object, I just want to take it in, make it mine forever (cf also, "I could eat that kitten's head in ONE BITE" -- didn't someone write that eating something is the ultimate loving destruction? I forget). But then one of the wise ladies of a certain age said on another thread that she feels the key to her feminine sexuality is the knack of enticing things to cross her threshold willingly, rather than a desire to invade them so maybe there's a male/female divide here.

Discus.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 7 December 2006 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link

cutness rules f u guyz

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Thursday, 7 December 2006 15:14 (seventeen years ago) link

But then one of the wise ladies of a certain age said on another thread that she feels the key to her feminine sexuality is the knack of enticing things to cross her threshold willingly, rather than a desire to invade them so maybe there's a male/female divide here.

Is this where I've been going wrong?

No, this seems like such a narrow view of feminine sexuality. but maybe that's what you're getting at - that this is the *cute* stereotype, as opposed to the hott one.

― masonic boom (kate), Thursday, 7 December 2006 15:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Please note that I said "her feminine sexuality", not "hers, yours, and everyone's, forever and ever amen." Didn't mean anything else by it.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 7 December 2006 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Ha, Kingfish -- I've been annoying my girlfriend lately by talking about how hot Jenna Fischer is -- I don't think she's ever actually seen The Office, though. I'm realizing now that part of the reason I used the word "hot" (besides the jokey annoyance factor) because a) she's cute, and b) she's on TV -- which has the effect of translating her cuteness into something else. When my girlfriend finds women on TV attractive (like Penelope Cruz, or the actress who plays Marta on Arrested Development, or Alexis Bledel) she says they're "beautiful."

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 16:52 (seventeen years ago) link

*...annoyance factor) is because...

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link

In our house, we use the word 'gorgeous'. I have observed that people sometimes shorten this to 'gorge', and this is very wrong.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 7 December 2006 16:55 (seventeen years ago) link

she's on TV -- which has the effect of translating her cuteness into something else.

She's on tv therefore she must be attractive/her attractiveness has been tacitly approved therefore I find her (random appealing but nonsexual qualities) attractive? That doesn't necessarily seem like you, John, but it's the only chain of reasoning that comes to mind.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 7 December 2006 16:58 (seventeen years ago) link

More like: She's on TV therefore she must be attractive/her attractiveness has been tacitly approved therefore I find her (personally appealing sexual qualities) smoothed out somehow.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Alexis Bledel looks like an alien baby, not beautiful.

i was searching for pictures of Iraq carnage and stumbled upon the cutest lil' soldier you ever did see. awww, she couldn't hurt nobody. i'll bet bubble gum comes out of her rifle:
Have you seen the "OMG HOT ISRAELI SOLDIERESS" blogs?

― milo (milo), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link

In our house, we use the word 'gorgeous'. I have observed that people sometimes shorten this to 'gorge', and this is very wrong.

No you are very wrong! George-ous is also acceptable.

I am neither cute nor hott I am more: I am kv_nol, hear me roar!

― kv_nol (kv_nol), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't think that her being on TV makes her more attractive(she'd have to be in a band for automatic-attractive-increasing), but they do play up the adorable factor, if you will.

http://myspace-901.vo.llnwd.net/01424/10/95/1424025901_l.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e356/SLiTHERGrant/Halloween.jpg

(runs her own myspace, she does)

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:30 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't think being on TV makes her more attractive. I think it makes her more "Hot."

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:31 (seventeen years ago) link

okay, i agree with that. we need more of a branding, tho. "Hot"(TM)(R) or something.

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:33 (seventeen years ago) link

the funny thing is the joke abt that character is being the only attractivish female in the office is what makes her hot (if i'm thinking of the right person, i've only seen the english one - the receptionist, right?)

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link

oh hey look a picture that says receptionist ok

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link

The person we're talking about is the receptionist on the US version.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:37 (seventeen years ago) link

I wish you would detail why her being on tv makes her hotter to you, J. Because TEH SYSTEM has declared that she's hot by virtue of casting her? Because as a result of that, she's famous? Because being a) declared hot and b) famous makes her more widely desired and therefore a greater prize?

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:37 (seventeen years ago) link

well most people on tv are pretty hot in real life, only appearing normal when judged by tv hotness standards - so maybe she's just actually hot.

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Hello, not the point. He said her being on tv MADE HER HOTTER. And he usually says exactly what he means.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:41 (seventeen years ago) link

I think you're misunderstanding me. I find her just as attractive as I would if she wasn't on TV. But her being on TV imbues her with a quality that allows me to use the word "hot" instead of "cute" -- it makes her attractiveness more universal and broadly acceptable somehow.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, it's the "somehow" that I'm interested in.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link

That's what I was getting at with the branding/trade-marking. Being on the TV added more "Hot"(TM), "Hot"(TM) in this case being some marketable quality divorced from any actual attractiveness.

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:48 (seventeen years ago) link

no it could actually be the point - see, judging her hotness by tv standards, but then perceiving her actually real life hotness subconsciously; could produce a sensation, similar to deja vu, where in one believe her hotness to have been amplified by the tv.

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:50 (seventeen years ago) link

When applied to a person's physical appearance, "hot" has a mildly objective connotation to me. There are people that are "hot" that we don't even have to argue about whether they're *really* hot or not -- that's just part of who they are. So Jenna Fischer, because she's a celebrity, acquires this descriptor more readily than if she worked at a bagel shop and I secretly thought she was "cute."

I do, however, use "hot," when not referring to a specific person, to mean "sexy" or "something I find personally attractive" -- as in "nipple rings are hot" or "submission is hot" (please not to read too much into these examples!!).

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:50 (seventeen years ago) link

too late

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:52 (seventeen years ago) link

How do you fellows & guys feel about being called "pretty"?

― Abbott (Abbott), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Nipple piercings and submission? Whatever happened to tube tops and stiletto heels?? Clearly I have been going about this all wrong.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:36 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/target/earth/7inch_36/rodney.gif

― Abbott (Abbott), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:38 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm fine with it, Abbott. A little surprised or embarrassed perhaps, but ultimately fine.

― sede vacante (blueski), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess it depends who be saying it.

― sede vacante (blueski), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't like heels or red lipstick.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:43 (seventeen years ago) link

I know, but you just said we shouldn't take the nips or SM as representative either, so you could have used anything. ANYTHING AT ALL!

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, it's the "somehow" that I'm interested in.
Distance? Perhaps it's easier to sexualize (original version: 'picture naked and sweaty') the cute girl you'll never meet as opposed to the librarian you could realistically date?

How do you fellows & guys feel about being called "pretty"?
I have never been called pretty (because I'm not - I should improve my skin moisturizing regime).

Possible breakdown:
Cute coming from girl about guy: death-knell of potential sex.
Cute coming from guy about girl: I'd totally hit it.
Pretty from girl about guy: sure he's not gay?
Pretty coming from guy about girl: she's OK, but I wouldn't really hit it.
Hot from girl about guy: I'd hit it
Hot from guy about girl: I'd hit it AND/OR I have no chance of hitting it

― milo (milo), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:45 (seventeen years ago) link

ENGL 523 - "The Semiotics of Cute" - 4 credits - MWF 8:30-10:00 - MLB 231

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:50 (seventeen years ago) link

the actress who plays Marta on Arrested Development

the FIRST one was TOTALLY hot, the second one, not so much. fwiw.

― max (maxreax), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:58 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm only on Season 1! You have confuddled me.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 18:59 (seventeen years ago) link

sometimes girls use cute when wanting to hit it - omg he's rilly ca-yoote!

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Thursday, 7 December 2006 19:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, milo, I agree with everything except girls using cute about guys, which sometimes seems *more* like "I'd hit it" than when guys use cute about girls -- that is, I don't think girls make much of a distinction between "cute" and "hot," whereas guys sometimes use "cute" as an inferior term.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 19:05 (seventeen years ago) link

ENGL 523 - "The Semiotics of Cute" - 4 credits - MWF 8:30-10:00 - MLB 231

I would totally get up at 8 AM to take this class.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 December 2006 19:08 (seventeen years ago) link

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