Cuteness and manes on hair

1. Cute
Being cute, in our case, became a shield against sexualization within the patriarchal environment in which we began to be Momu & No Es. A kind of “cute capital” allowed us to operate in a terrain difficult to intervene.

To contextualize this notion of “cute capital”, I’ve put together a series of ideas and reflections that make up the relationship between cute and the construction of a space of resistance.

A. Yesterday

An arts student’s notebook decorated with stickers of Sony Angel dressed as a cat, and a Sylvanian Families doll, among other motifs.

Lab 1, a class of 23 first-year students. Introductions with pronouns, all She/Her or All of them. A relaxed environment, but not for that reason not challenging.

B. Cuteness and Japan
The first time I went to Japan, one of the things that most caught my attention was that cute was for everyone, from schoolchildren to subway workers, salarymen, and Buddhist monks, all of whom wore uniforms (although that’s another topic). As I was saying, they all had charms and little dolls unabashedly decorating their cell phones and work bags.

They all openly consumed cuteness as kawaii^[1]Kawaii. Japanese use cuteness in a wide variety of instances and situations where, in other cultures, it might be considered incongruously childish or frivolous (for example, in government … Continue reading or its multiple derivations^[2]For example, Gurokawa (グロカワ), known as “Creepy Cute” outside of Japan, is a Japanese aesthetic characterized by a juxtaposition of Kawaii imagery with grotesque elements and … Continue reading.
I read later that in Japan there is even an official figure of Cuteness Ambassador.^[3]May, Simon: El poder del lo cuqui (The Power of Cuteness), Alpha Decay 2019

C. Cuteness in Western Culture
Meanwhile, here, cuteness has historically been linked to childhood, pets, adolescent girls, or decorative elements, that is, to the domestic world, with negative connotations and a lack of agency that these notions entail. Cuteness generated, and often still does, a certain shame and intellectual contempt. But what if this “superficiality” is also friction?

2. Radical cuteness (っ◕‿◕)っ ♥
Cute responds to an intense desire, and exists in a place where Daddy has been constantly administering the law, dictating what can and cannot be done. Radical cute emerges from the intimacy of dormitories, centers of operations in which common spaces of belonging are constructed in which to act freely.

Amy Ireland and Maya B. Kronic, authors of Cute Accelerationism^[4]Amy Ireland & Maya B. Kronic, Cute Accelerationism, Urbanomic, 2024., mention “We are Cute Together” in an interview for the Machinic Unconspicious Happy Hour podcast. This expression reflects their joint exploration of how cute can serve as a form of resistance and subversion in contemporary cultural contexts.

This idea makes me think of Noura Tafeche and Alex Quicho, of Montse Badia and Maria Muñoz, and of Eva and me, in cute collaborations and how these unions expand, in this case, to include all of us who have collaborated in some way in the past A*LIVE 2024. This togetherness speaks of belonging to an emancipatory place of the feminist LGTIBQA+ community.

Being cute once again becomes a multipurpose umbrella. It no longer just protects, it also waterproofs us and, at the same time, offers us a ground on which to operate without having to justify anything. We are cute together.

Mane on hair on a Doll ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ
Returning to Japan, the term kawaii was originally used only to describe the cuteness of a baby or an animal, things that are considered “authentically kawaii.” Nowadays, however, the use has been extended to all kinds of things. The kawaii phenomenon was presented for the first time time during the 1960s with the appearance of stuffed animals.

These non-human animals and objects, with their constant personification, are reviled and disrespected by our anthropocentric society.gaze. Let’s talk about long curly hair and animal transvestites.

Examples such as La Aldea del Arce (The Deer’s Village) or the Sylvanian Families are part of a huge audiovisual production of cuteness in which animals and anthropomorphic objects respond to human attitudes, giving rise to an army of subordinates. These little cuties confront us with the uncanny, that disturbing blink that reveals otherness in the midst of the familiar. The end of the world as we know it.^[5]Jorge Cascante, in Una habitación propia (A Room of One’s Own), one of the stories from his book Una ciudad entera bañada en sangre humana (A Whole City Bathed in Human Blood), Blackie Books, … Continue reading

“Come to our village and play with us
Play with squirrels, play with bears.
Come, we’re waiting for you, we’ll have lots of fun.
We’ll play at night, we’ll play during the day.
Uoooooooo uoooooooo
We’re your friends, and we’ll go out with you
And show you the forests and the rivers.
We’ll have lots of adventures,
Lots of fun and lots of mischief.
Uooooooo, Uooooooo
Yeah, yeah,
You will stay in our village.”

“You will stay in the village,” says the menacing song^[6]The music for this series was composed by Akiko Kosaka, and was highly praised by the public and critics. Emilio Aragon was in charge of writing the lyrics in Spanish, which were performed by him and … Continue reading in Spanish in La Aldea del Arce. Faced with otherness, there is the possibility of a revenge fantasy of these cute objects against us. Which brings me back to the idea of ​​an army of cute identities, operating with cuteness, which gives rise to parrhesia. Like a Trojan horse let loose in a world that has not let us speak freely and that has treated us with paternalism.

I had something in mind when reflecting on cuteness, man on hair, the community and fandom, and that is, Furries. I recommend the article “ENJOY THIS LEAK >W< GAY FURRIES PWN THE GOVERNMENT,” Queer Furry Hacktivism and the virtual rebellion for LGBTIQ+ rights”, by ¥€$Si PERSE, published in this very magazine.

Extra bonus
AI and cuteness
When we talk about a revenge fantasy it reminds me of our attitude today towards AI; personified and at the same time less independent than we imagine. When we started to research the world of generative AI we soon realized the cultural and “ethical” limitations that influence the programming of these technologies. Most generative AI programs do not allow us to create content considered “offensive,” such as “cute anthropomorphic figure of a Sylvanian Family evil figure.” In this case, “evil” was a problem while “weapon” was acceptable.

On the other hand, apart from the biases within the education of AI and its lactating state, the interstices, doubts and design flaws become charming details that mark the aesthetics of the first dawn of the use of generative AI, revealing its own character, when it still seems to want to reveal itself to our language in order to find those fissures that lead us to possible worlds such as Lovecraftian universes, quantum promises, and hyperstitious doors.

Video still “Radical Cuteness” detail, by Momu & No Es

Colophon
The other day, coming home at night, I saw a man wearing a short skirt over his clothes and a LED crown with big cat ears.

Who doesn’t want to be cute today?
≧◠◡◠≦✌

Lucía Momu

(Featured image: Mane on hair and vice-versa, Momu & No Es)