this
or
this?
Why?
Well, probably because they look innocent.
We can find human babies cute, too. Well, some of us. The rest of us see them as manipulative little devils who are actually the ones ruling the world. Anyway, I'm not the latter. I swear *emphasizes words*.
The common point is that they are all innocent. They LOOK innocent and vulnerable and THAT's what we find cute.
But then, some girls and guys see a pair of shoes and go,
THESE ARE SO CUTE! I gotta get these!
shoes aren't CUTE like, they aren't innocent.
They aren't even ALIVE so how can they be INNOCENT?
Here's what I thought. Perhaps
shoes are seen as cute in the sense of pretty. Pretty is different from beautiful. Like, you won't call a five-year-old girl "beautiful". You would say "pretty", right? Well, most of the time. A girl is called beautiful maybe around sixteen or so when they start nearing "young adulthood". When you call a sixteen-year-old girl "pretty", you mean it not in the grown-up sense but in the cute-child sense as well as the grown-up sense. You are calling her "cute" and "beautiful" at the same time but more in the "cute" direction. The innocent direction.
Okay, so when we say (not including me) shoes are cute, we are mixing it up with "pretty". We cannot use "pretty" and "cute" interchangeably, meaning, they are not synonymous. They don't equal each other.
ALSO!
A personality cannot be pretty or cute. That's not how personalities work.
Okay, let me get into personalities for a sec here. Are you guys following me? I'm trying to make my philosophical words as neutral as possible so anyone can understand me. I am a grad student and I DO write academic essays so...anyway.
Personalities are intangible. Things that have no substance. Things that we can't actually touch.
Animals and people are tangible. They have substance and we can touch them. We can pat them on the head and tell them they are cute.
Personalities can't be cute or pretty because they are intangible. We are using "cute" and "pretty" too casually. We can't say personalities are cute. Cute things are innocent and a person cannot have an INNOCENT personality. People are innocent when they have not been exposed to the world's gritty reality.
Like, love is not all about waiting for your prince to come. It's all about the gritty heartbreaks and depression and lies and deceit until you finally find your best companion.
OKAY. Let me guide you out of this Minotaur's Labyrinth.
Shoes are tangible. We can touch them. But they are not alive. They don't have personalities or feelings and cannot talk. They don't have brains.
People are tangible. We can touch them. They are alive. They have personalities, feelings, and can talk. They have brains.
But just because we say people are cute, doesn't mean we can say shoes are cute, too. They are pretty.
Hence,
Pretty does not equal Cute.
Pretty is used for tangible things that aren't alive and that we put on ourselves such as accessories or clothes.
Cute is used for tangible things that are alive such as people and animals. Stuffed animals are also in this category because a lot of us associate them with real animals and see an innocence about them because they are like the replicas of real animals which are seen as innocent.
Do not use "cute" for shoes and clothes and accessories, guys. That is the wrong usage.
Cute is for innocent, alive, or replicated-from-alive things.
Pretty is for things. THINGS! Likes shoes, clothes, and accessories.
Got it now? Okay, good.
See ya later, alligators :D
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