Confronting Cuteness

"confronted with great merit, there is no resistence, but love."  - goethe

AN INTERESTING ARTICLE came online today, getting attention because it claims that the quality of cuteness, like what we see in puppies, babies, or kittens, tends to bring out aggressive tendencies in people.

The article discussed studies of this phenomenon, proving that it really happens; cute stuff makes people aggressive, and proceeds to ask why. Several different explanations have been put forth, but so far there is nothing definite.

All my life life i have noticed this, actually, but hadn't really thought about it much, until i saw this article, and it certainly does seem bizarre, that we do that. But its true with me; i always want to hold and hug a cute dog or cat longer, and harder, and kiss it more often, than it wants.

recently i stood in line at a dollar store, behind a mother with an adorable baby in the baby basket of her shopping cart. The infant, facing me, stared straight at me, pacifier in mouth. For some reason, I didn't like this, and i stared right back, long, hard, stern. 

for some reason a part of me wanted to rip that pacifier out of that adorable little mouth, and dangle it tauntingly in front of the tot. it may well be that only the  mother's presence, and that of a few other people, kept me from doing it. Am i sick, normal, or both?

I've seen people gritting teeth when patting a cat. When i took my two cute kittens to visit my mother, they were so cute that mother rushed right over to lavish affection on them; and they ran and hid. (let them come to you)

Like most people, she applied too much pressure to them when she finally touched them. That tends to frighten them. You want to squeeze hard, but you can't, unless yo happen to have a one hundred pound dog, which i once did, precisely for that reason.

One theory is that when one is confronted with extreme cuteness one feels inherently an inability to protect, take care of, provide for, and connect with it, and that creates frustration, which emerges as aggression.

Feeling aggressive around cuteness is comparable to miss america sobbing when she wins the crown, say some experts; overwhelmed with positive stimulation, a negative reaction becomes a balancing force.