Introspection | The Downside of Being "Cute"

I have a love/hate relationship with the word "cute". On one hand, if someone is telling you you're cute, you get (from their tone of voice) that they're telling you something positive--they mean that you look young or admire the fresh spring in your step. You can get away with most style trends that would look dowdy or ridiculouson other people--over-sized sweaters, usamimi headbands. Making friends is also really easy because people find that they can approach you. For the most part, I suppose being cute in the modern context of the word (pretty, harmless-looking instead of the Webster's cross-eyed and bow-legged) is definitely a compliment. 

But on the other hand, there seem to be certain things that people think they're entitled to once they call you cute and you say "thank you"; because I've been called cute/pretty/adorable/like my little pony a lot--which, don't get me wrong, I appreciate thank you--I thought I'd share 5 things that I think is epitomize the downside to inheriting skin that makes you look 17 at 21 (what Trizha calls the cute gene), just for fun. :) I thought this'd come in handy both for people who've experienced something similar (you're not alone!) and people who do this to cute people (stop it!). 

People Think They Have the Right to Invade Your Personal Space. I have been grabbed, squeezed and hair-ruffled one two many times in this life. I find that once someone goes "you're adorable!" and you say "Oh, thanks!" they usually respond by squishing your cheeks together, pinching your arm fat and/or ruffling your hair. See, I am not not an affectionate person, but I have pretty high interpersonal distance needs--so much so that I wrote my thesis on it. :)) When my close friends do this, it isn't so bad and when Keav does it, it's adorable. But when classmate #4061, groupmate in religion class #6500 does it and you're not sure where her hands have been, it's kinda creepy. Also, I take great care styling my hair everyday in a manner that will allow it to stay in order despite falling asleep in the bus and having someone you barely know run their hands through your hair can really get in the way of that. 

"Awww" Becomes the Default Response to Everything You Do/Say. While I guess I have used this to my advantage a lot of times--like in Harry Potter class a year ago when I told my friend Carlos (who was from Durmstrang aka just sitting in) "You don't even go here. God." during a debate, which our team (Slytherin + Hufflepuff) won--I find that it's difficult to get people to take you seriously when even when you're serious it comes off cutesy. For example, when people ask me about my writing (short short fiction) and I say that I don't quite believe in talking about writing anymore--just in writing, people go "Awwwww, you're adorable." and I feel like someone just told me that Aragorn isn't really the King of Gondor. 

You Don't Get Angry. People leave rude comments on your store's page or say offensive things about people who you know and they expect you never to get angry. You're somehow supposed to be okay with everything everyone says. And once you do get angry, instead of seeing that you are mad, people go "Wow, I didn't know you had it in you." and clap you on the back. Or, even better: they tell you to relax, as if you didn't have the right to be upset in the first place. My friend Aileen (who I hung out with a couple of weeks ago) was telling me that most people are afraid of her because she's very frank and straight to the point; I told her I envied that fear-striking quality. 

You Get Shamelessly Hit On By Random Men. The difference, I've found, between being cute/pretty and hot/pretty is all in how approachable people think you are.

I have a couple of friends who are of the hot/pretty variety and people love looking at them, but I find that they have this wheres-my-tongue effect on a lot of people, which means that people mostly leave them alone. The two most traumatic experience for me were a) when this bus conductor who sat beside me, demanded my number and then went on to ask if he could share my earphones--he proceeded (even if I didn't give him my number) to try and hold my hand and get me to tell him where I lived and b) when I got felt up by a male masseur at one of the spas my sister and I go to regularly; this one's pretty self-explanatory, I think. Seriously. What part of "No." don't you understand--oh, the fact that my face doesn't quite look angry. I need tiger look lessons.

It Is Impossible to Be Sexy. While part of me likes this since I can wear necklines that plunge without looking slutty or overly-sexual, I also realized that I am never going to be dangerous. HAHAHA This occurred to me while watching this clip of Taylor Momsen performing on stage with big, duct-tape Xs on her boobs (as per Trizha's recommendation); while it was sexy in a Runaways type of way on her, I realized that if I did something similar it would probably look more like child pornography. :)) Although Keavin (and maybe a couple of other people) would beg to differ, I still say cute/sexy just isn't dangerous/hot sexy. Doesn't seem like my dream of becoming James Dean (hahaha) is going to come true any time soon. :))

And that's it really--other than that, it's not so bad I suppose. :D I hope you enjoyed this post!