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This is very cultural. The west, and especially North America, is very anti-cute in general. I think part of it is that traditionally cute was something that

This is very cultural. The west, and especially North America, is very anti-cute in general. I think part of it is that traditionally cute was something that was culturally acceptable for women and girls to enjoy. Men and boys were supposed to show some disdain for cuteness. As discrimination against women became a more recognised issue, I think it became less acceptable for women to enjoy cuteness. To be cute was to invite the discrimination they were fighting against. I live in Japan now, where women and girls tend to enjoy cute things. I really enjoy that aspect of the culture. I wish that instead of women fighting against the cute stereotype we could allow men to enjoy cuteness. It's obviously a much more difficult approach to the problem, but to me it seems much more desirable.

kossTKR 7y ago
Japan is an interesting example. But aren't they the essence of a highly educated society that exactly because of it's neurotic and academic cutoff from their bodies or the "dionysian" undergrowth explode in fetichization of sexuality, infantile fantasies and strict codes of conduct for the forever peter-pan like mind, slaving away as salary men, getting teenage drunk in the weekends with the boss and then have no guts to ask the girl of their dreams out because they have lost all of their mirror neurons to screen culture? They did this because of escapism from and as a reaction to the extreme horrors of war so i understand why - but i mean suicides, extremely low birthrates, and lots of problems with guys that lack social skills doesn't seem like a healthy society to me - even though i do enjoy both Japan and their cute iconogrophy so i am somewhat infatuated. What is very interesting though is that cute-culture flips 180 from being a simple or infantile in Japan exactly because it shows restraint! Restraint from the violence that created the horrors of war, so in that light it's pretty understandable. It's actually sophisticated as a reaction in their cultural context, but not in the US because they haven't been glassed involuntarily. Not that the vapid gung-ho fantasy of the US is much better alternative but it makes sense as a military superpower and as an extension of settler culture. In that light Japan is the clever little brother that holds his teddy bear tightly while the US is the big bully - but both societies have high levels of infantilization, in the US it's just through mass-media and a culture of extreme convenience. Point being that both of these are unhealthy, and a return to living closer to nature, or biology or whatever, as an antidote to both climate collapse and bodily neurosis, depression and anxiety will probably also lead to a world where "cuteness" is just a part of nature, and not an object of fetizhization, just like the US fetishises guns, or Germany does Industry. All functions of geopolitical games that create pathologies for whole societies. But also ultimately as functions of extreme wealth and a lifestyle where there is even time or space to fetishise anything beyond "nature". Then again we are on Hackernews the epitome of an apollonian realm and i am also in part spawned from the internet. Maybe the antidote is to try to survive in the woods then travel in third world countries and lastly farm the land for a few years before returning to internet-world as an antidote to Technological Society. (that's going to happen) Will i be able to enjoy cute kittens after that, will they elicit any dopamine, or will i just club and eat them? I have no idea.
- mikekchar 7y ago
  It's an interesting point of view, but... no... I don't think you are even close ;-)

kossTKR 7y ago

Japan is an interesting example. But aren't they the essence of a highly educated society that exactly because of it's neurotic and academic cutoff from their bodies or the "dionysian" undergrowth explode in fetichization of sexuality, infantile fantasies and strict codes of conduct for the forever peter-pan like mind, slaving away as salary men, getting teenage drunk in the weekends with the boss and then have no guts to ask the girl of their dreams out because they have lost all of their mirror neurons to screen culture? They did this because of escapism from and as a reaction to the extreme horrors of war so i understand why - but i mean suicides, extremely low birthrates, and lots of problems with guys that lack social skills doesn't seem like a healthy society to me - even though i do enjoy both Japan and their cute iconogrophy so i am somewhat infatuated. What is very interesting though is that cute-culture flips 180 from being a simple or infantile in Japan exactly because it shows restraint! Restraint from the violence that created the horrors of war, so in that light it's pretty understandable. It's actually sophisticated as a reaction in their cultural context, but not in the US because they haven't been glassed involuntarily. Not that the vapid gung-ho fantasy of the US is much better alternative but it makes sense as a military superpower and as an extension of settler culture. In that light Japan is the clever little brother that holds his teddy bear tightly while the US is the big bully - but both societies have high levels of infantilization, in the US it's just through mass-media and a culture of extreme convenience. Point being that both of these are unhealthy, and a return to living closer to nature, or biology or whatever, as an antidote to both climate collapse and bodily neurosis, depression and anxiety will probably also lead to a world where "cuteness" is just a part of nature, and not an object of fetizhization, just like the US fetishises guns, or Germany does Industry. All functions of geopolitical games that create pathologies for whole societies. But also ultimately as functions of extreme wealth and a lifestyle where there is even time or space to fetishise anything beyond "nature". Then again we are on Hackernews the epitome of an apollonian realm and i am also in part spawned from the internet. Maybe the antidote is to try to survive in the woods then travel in third world countries and lastly farm the land for a few years before returning to internet-world as an antidote to Technological Society. (that's going to happen) Will i be able to enjoy cute kittens after that, will they elicit any dopamine, or will i just club and eat them? I have no idea.

mikekchar 7y ago
It's an interesting point of view, but... no... I don't think you are even close ;-)