Maybe you can tell by now that 'dreamy nostalgia' is a core element of our therapy practice's identity. Lately, I've been exploring playfulness and cuteness not just as a look or an aesthetic, but as forms of resistance, rebellion, love, and radicalism.
Below are some reflections I put together!
The power of cute has not been explored enough.
In my search, I found it to be so odd that most articles that researched on cuteness were critiques of cuteness: infantilization, magical thinking, fetishization, being in denial as an adult, or packaged as simpler times.
Note: to be fair, I only searched the internet in the english language...
When I think about cuteness, it aligns with the most resilient parts of my current adult self and the purest parts of the younger versions of myself.
Cuteness is a point where I get to come closer to my personal interests without shame and embarrassment, liberating parts of me without oppressive restrictions like age-limit, how to dress or act or what’s appropriate or legit/professional.
Here are 4 thoughts on cuteness as resistance that can light us up:
cuteness as camoflauge:
when talking about serious topics like historical trauma, racism, or transphobia...
cuteness aids in politicizing conversations and reflections in a digestable, resonating and nostalgic way.
Cuteness helps us critique, question, reflect how we've been socialized, while mixing in elements of play.
2. cuteness is kitsch:
Kitsch is a German word for ‘worthless trashy art’, critiquing the quality of the art
Cuteness is our mark on decolonizing what art can be instead of art ‘should be’. It challenges the traditional ‘fine’ arts, dismantle and unarm systemic rules.
Cuteness helps folks tap in the power of making ‘bad art’.
Who knew that a sense of playfulness and absurdity can help realign my creative practice for pleasure and expression as a fundamental human right.
3. in postmodernism:
Cuteness helps me dream of a reality that makes sense.
Because a world that’s a dumpster fire isn’t cute and not going to cut it.
It helps me sustain optimism and conduct small acts of resistance through orienting to the playful parts of life and imagination.
4. Cuteness as relief
Cuteness charges our energy in the realm of healing.
Cuteness inspires us to connect with the softness, gentleness, kindness, loveliness which embodies safe moments so we don’t disconnect from the heaviness of everyday struggles.
It's probably why corporate workers love cute animal videos and memes to get through the day.
Resources that inspired my research:
• Cute affectivism: radical uses of the cuteness affect among activists and artists by Ingeborg Hasselgren
• @umeboi's tiktoks and reflections on kitsch in contemporary art and cuteness