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What do Labubus, Beanie Babies, Hello Kitty, and Furbies have in common? They’re all cute! In episode 153 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss cuteness. From the idea of cuteness as a logic of contagion to the evolutionary explanation for why we find babies so adorable, this episode has it all. How is the increasing demand for shortform content a symptom of cuteification? What are the harms of categorizing certain animals as cute? In what ways is cuteness tied to consumption? And is society heading towards a future of cuteness? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts talk about the emergence of cuteness in Kawaii culture and what is so cute about Paddington bear.

Works Discussed:

Amy Ireland and Maya B. Kronic, Cute Accelerationism

Sianne Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, and Interesting

Sianne Ngai, The Cute

Dylan Wittkower, “On The Origins of the Cute as a Dominant Aesthetic Category in Digital Culture”

Sarah Wolfensohn, “Too Cute to Kill? The Need for Objective Measurements of Quality of Life”

Highlight: Cuteness and Commodity

* Sianne Ngai argues we related to commodities in terms of cuteness

* Packaging a commodity may imply cuteness

* Capitalism plays into the increasing cute-ification of commodities

* Anytime we aestheticize something, we objectify it, and cute-ification is the endpoint of objectification

* Objects we buy are already passive, but cuteness increases their passivity

* Cuteness also constricts the gap between consumer and commodity

* As items are better advertised and created for our desires, they’re getting smaller, plushier, and cuter

* Do you think cuteness, consumption, and capitalism are as connected as Ngai believes?