The Cute and The Creepy series continues with No. 2 THE CURSE OF THE CUTE (Aesthetic Diabetes in the 21st Century). This is a very brightly colored journey into the darkness of our times. And we seek to explore the nature of The Cute. And how our aesthetic choices convey the deep confusions we feel over human nature. Prepare yourself for this one. And if you came for the warm fuzzies… you have definitely taken a wrong turn.
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Byrne
#cute #balenciaga #genderless
22 Comments
Okay everyone I have a request. I feel that this is a special video. If you feel similarly please share it wherever you can. I think it needs to seen by more people than my usual videos. Thanks. And stick around, we're goin' in much deeper!
thanks for the content warning, I almost watched this at the library today. Wouldn't be caught dead in public with some of this imagry on my screen. lol
gosh I have so many threads to pull at that came to me watching this video. Wonderful job Byrne. One thing that seems related to me is especially where sexuality becomes blended into the cuteness there's an aspect of medusa. The big eyes can be sign of awe, freezing in terror, or (maybe) freezing in your childishness and development. Medusa definitely is a subset of the devouring mother, and it's pretty telling that usually the cute imagery is taken in as a personal identity rather than an exterior object to be doted over. Maybe if all this hyper-cute imagery is being taken by a camera we should wonder who is behind the eyepiece, taking a snapshot of us, at least before participating with the cuteness. Or could I say we should look in the mirror?
I look forward to explaining this to my wife when Covenant Eyes flags this video. đ
I'm glad you're highlighting this stuff. It is important and was just transparent to me except for a private sense of distaste.
Two words – extreme infantilization.
It is absolutely EVERYWHERE and it is so, so tiresome..
Thanks for the video, as always, Mr Power. God Bless.
And as if on time, YouTube JUST announced some plan to have creators go animated! Wtf đł I just imagine PVK doing one of his videos as an old man anime character now
Iâm two minutes in and I have a feeling tentacles may come upâŚ.
I would say your goal of getting deeper than most is certainly achieved in lots of your videos cause you illuminate huge culture moments and culture creation/âartâ that most people know is there but too afraid to look at in honesty with its affects it has on us without pointing the finger and screaming âbad bad bad!â
This is fascinating and disturbing⌠I have kids, and I need to rethink a lot of things now, from toys and video games to clothing and books. Cuteness is ubiquitous: now I canât unsee it⌠Iâm feeling kind of polluted by it, frankly. God have mercy. Thank you for your insights!
I think people are beginning to understand this implicitly â there's the meme "Silence, wench! I do not wish to be horny anymore. I just want to be happyâŚ" that almost always has to do with a noble knight or samurai-esque character slaughtering the cute to save his soul. There is, even now, some light of hope in a fight against cute
Your point about cats reminded me of that one video with the "grandma-looking" cat, which causes the person filming the cat to start freaking out (whether sincerely or otherwise).
Video code: /watch?v=N_COP5clGzw
Regarding nature, assigning cruelty (as opposed to cuteness) to it is also the anthropomorphizing of something inherently amoral.
I think my anime/cute cartoon phase was a reaction to the very adult imagery I was exposed to thanks to my brothers and the internet while I was still quite young. But this is quite huge like when you mentioned we collectively decided excessively cute things are kinda creepy at some point. Thank you for these highly textured videos you produce. I've hit the bell
Wow, what a poignant description "aesthetic diabetes"… I've always noticed the exaggerated eyes, but after this video, it's even more pronounced. Great video sir.
I have 5 children 29-11 and I have always kept them away from this type of stuff for the most part. None of my girls even saw a Disney princess until they were probably almost teenagers. We do have the Jesus Storybook Bible which has more cute illustrations but that may be the single example haha. I believe one thing I did right as a parent was give my children an aesthetic home and exposure to art from the youngest ages, but I regret how much they all got into personal devices etc as they got older, maybe even as a rebellion for me raising the first three almost completely screen-free and being overly self righteous about that fact.
How about a Precious Moments figurine bible ?
And a Joseph ChristX to all
My experience with the cute overpowering other sentiments was when I did a deep cleaning job for a hoarder. A nurse at one of our local hospitals lived in a house infested with rats. She physically fought those of use who put down rat poison or traps. Her favorite movie was Disney's Cinderella. And these (cute and innocent to her) haunta virus infection vectors could not be killed unless someone ran interference and distracted her, the distraction was my job most of the time. Even with all this we had the house exorcized and blessed by a Priest, the critters are back. She thankfully is no longer working at the hospital due to a conversation I had with hospital management.
An interesting example of your point happened with the Warner Brothers Looney Toons. When I was young (50s-60s) the characters (Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Tweetie) were cast as wise cracking nutty adults. By the 80s they had been 'replaced' by similar characters that were essentially toddlers (and politically correct as well). I found it pathetic.
I do not agree with and endorse every word you've said here, but my God, are you saying some very important things that are worthy of consideration. More so than not, I think you are on the right track.
Yes this is more important than your usual videos. Thank you Byrne. Six thoughts:
How about connecting the rise of the cute to WW2 aftermath? Well, I suspect you're planning to do so, and by doing that, connecting it to the HWGH series. The timeframes align for sure.
Another connection just waiting to be made is between sharpness and detail. We turned detail into flat primary colors. We turned the semantics of "sharp" into soft and round. Not allowing children to respond things done in details. Not allowing adults to respond to sharp things.
I don't think that people register cute as cute anymore (I don't). It's been memetically exapted. The cute is not the content, the cute has become a language which is used to express other things.
Not sure it's about baby likeness… I think babies could've just been one of the first (ancient) instantiations of cuteness. Babies are the primary example, not the source, maybe.
Simplified: You lean more towards the cute being a cause, I lean more towards the cute being a symptom.
So cuteness can make anything seem harmless. And then nostalgia is a second order camouflaging system, generationally preventing us from addressing the problems with disarming that which demands respect. Is nostalgia the only thing preventing us? Would we see clearly if we weren't nostalgic?
34:21 you say not literally but I disagree
when I watch the South Park clip for the first time I realized what happened to the Romanâs with their puppet shows. In the age of decadence they were doing really degenerate stuff with street puppet shows. Nothings new under the sun I guess đ¤ˇđźââď¸