As Cute as a Button(-quail)

a senseless protest against aesthetic ambiguity

small & round (a button quail in a butterfly house)

A while ago I found myself confused about the meaning of the word “cute”, which was frustrating since it’s basically the most popular positive adjective people use around here. It was frustrating enough that I put probably too much effort into trying to understand it (especially since like… literally any other topic would make more sense to approach analytically), and I figured I might as well share my results in case any other nerds would appreciate the clarification.

What is “Cute”?

On any topic of great consequence and controversy, it’s important to have clear definitions and standards. For example, immense quantities of time and money have been spent clarifying exactly what “kilogram” means. The standard unit I hear of when judging cuteness is a button, as in the idiom “as cute as a button”, so we might as well start there. Now idioms are infamous for their confusing meanings, and this one fits right in (1, 2). Before I can say something is as cute as a button, I need to know how cute a button is. 100% cute? 79%? 66.67%? What kind of button are we talking about, anyway? Buttons are pretty variable. Big, small, round, pointy… honestly the only thing in common seems to be their function. Except the lost and broken ones, they just sit around doing nothing. Just like baby animals. 🤔

So what are we supposed to take away from this? What does it mean for something to look cute? What does it mean for something to act cute??

Photo by Önder Örtel on Unsplash