TresSugar

Cute Alert: Baby Polar Bear Debuts Her Mirror Face

GiggleSugar — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:00:00 -0800

Look familiar? She should. Not too long ago, we watched Flocke (German for snowflake) sleep and snore away her first few weeks in a Nuremberg zoo. She's grown up a bit and can now lift her own head - to take a long, hard stare at her adorable self in the mirror, natch. With those itty-bitty teddy ears, I don't blame her.

Reflection Purrrfection

GiggleSugar — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:00:00 -0700

Mirror me this, mirror me that- but this is no mirror, it's two in sync cats!

Identical Twins Cannot Be Trusted!

GiggleSugar — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:00:00 -0700

Twins be nimble, twins be quick, twins pull off a pretty bad ass trick. While peering through a window, one gal mimics her identical looking counterpart in a public restroom, leading other users to assume there's a mirror in front of them. When they fail to find themselves in that "mirror," the ~~fun~~ paranoia begins. (Even when they're playing practical jokes, Germans get all existential and shit...)

Pug Confronts His Reflection

GiggleSugar — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:00:00 -0700

I never tire of watching pets befriend themselves in the mirror. But this particular pug has no love for his reflection. Not only is it always around, but it's such a copy cat! And we all know how dogs feel about cats...

Kitty Goes Mirror Crazy

GiggleSugar — Mon, 28 May 2007 12:43:02 -0700

Remember the pup that couldn't take his eyes off of himself in the mirror? Well, here's his kitty counterpart, but Cosmo the cat has no love for his own reflection. Watch him launch a ninja-style attack on himself and karate kick his way into...well, a mirror.

Monkey See, Monkey Who?!

GiggleSugar — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:00:00 -0700

Curious George here finds a mirror and reenacts the opening to my morning routine: fright at first sight. Morning face sucks!

Pup Has A Love-Hate Relationship With Self

GiggleSugar — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 06:00:00 -0700

This poor pup doesn't realize that he's standing in front of a mirror, so after an aggressive attempt to give his reflection a friendly kiss hello, the frustration sets in and the growling begins. I'm sure we can all relate.

The Dark Side of Cute

TresSugar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Kittens in casts. Babies nudged to laugh every five seconds. Stuffed teddy bears left at killing-spree sites. We are so surrounded by the tyranny of cute that even multibillion-dollar corporations have cute names like "Google" and "Twitter," and the uncute business of insurance is represented in ads by a cute lizard with an English accent. (And yes, I too am guilty of spreading cuteness.)

What's up with the cute? Writer Jim Windolf has had enough and decided to try to get to the bottom of what he calls the "self-infantalization" of Americans. His conclusion? There's a dark, manipulative side to cute. If you want to know what it is, read more.

In Daniel Harris's book Cute, Quaint, Hungry, and Romantic, he says that there's a hidden sadism to our love of cute, citing the barrage of images of cats falling, puppies slamming into mirrors, and even babies trapped in high chairs being prodded to laugh.

"The process of conveying cuteness to the viewer disempowers its objects," he writes, "forcing them into ridiculous situations and making them appear more ignorant and vulnerable than they really are. Adorable things are often most adorable in the middle of a pratfall or a blunder." In other words, they are cute insofar as they are helpless, and we, conferrers of cute, are all-powerful.

Becoming cute, conversely, is one way of disarming opponents or critics. It's not incidental, argues Windolf, that the cult of cute in the US emerged during the Bush years, when "the American image went from that of protector to invader, from defender of human rights to aggressor on the lookout for loopholes in the Geneva Conventions." Cuteness then, according to this theory, "came about as some sort of correction, as a way for us to convince ourselves and our friends that we're not as bad as our recent national actions have made us seem." (It reminds me of smiley emoticons at the end of passive-aggressive email messages and instant messages. In this case, American cute is like a ginormous cultural smiley face emoticon tacked on the end of dubious actions telling our allies we're not all that bad.)

Windolf traces American cute back to Japan's kawaii culture, which got huge 10 years ago but actually emerged at the end of WWII after it was "humiliated and emasculated." If you're interested in political and cultural psychoanalysis, I suggest reading this long essay. But whatever you do, remember - ~~sometimes a cigar is just a cigar~~ sometimes a cute kitten isn't just a cute kitten.

Source

Ask an Older Woman: Help! My Friend's With a Married Man

TresSugar — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0800

Conventional Wisdom is a different kind of advice column. Your questions will be answered by people from all walks of life rather than by advice experts. If you have a question you'd like answered on Conventional Wisdom, you can submit it here.

Today's question: One of my good friends has been seeing a married man for about a year. He also just happens to be her boss. When we get together, she bombards me with the details of their relationship. He tells her he's never been happier, and that he'll leave his wife for her soon (yeah, we've heard that one before!) and she seems to believe him. My problem with this whole thing is that not only am I sick of listening to her, and of course could tell her so, but I've lost respect for her. Is it wrong to break up with a friend who's doing things I find morally reprehensible? Is there anything I can do to get through to her that what she is doing is horrible for her, not to mention this man's wife?

Signed, Confused Friend.

To hear what an older woman has to say, read more
Dear Confused Friend,

Ahh, the folly of youth. For every bad relationship I bored my friends with, I in turn listened to details about men (or women) they were with who didn't deserve them. It's part of being a friend.

My best advice to you is to be honest with your friend. You don't mention if you've told her how you feel, or if you did, how she reacted. If you haven't, now is the time to start. Tell her you care about her, but you think that contributing to cheating is morally messed up, and that in the end she's probably just going to get hurt. (I guess "the other woman" sometimes ends up with the guy, but who wants to end up with a cheater?) Also, sleeping with your married boss? Pretty dumb. Do other people in her office know? This is not good for her professional life either. I'd tell her that, too, although it's hard to imagine an adult who doesn't know this.

If you really like this friend and this is the only thing she's done that makes you question her character, ride it out and hope she comes to her senses. There's only so much advice we can give people. If you've told her how you feel and she continues with this affair, that's her decision. If she steers you toward this topic when you hang out, just let her know you don't feel comfortable listening to it anymore.

Sometimes, though, if friends do sketchy things, those acts are a window into the rest of their sketchy selves. I had a friend who not only cheated on her husband once, but throughout their marriage, and I began to notice that her behavior towards him mirrored her behavior towards me and everyone else. She was selfish, narcissistic and unable to ever admit fault. We'd had fun partying together when we were younger, but as we grew older, I realized I needed to respect my friends. After a blowout fight when she said horrible things to me, I took it as my cue to get out, and I dumped her.

You're in a tricky situation, but honesty is the best policy. If you can't be honest with her, maybe you aren't really great friends to begin with, in which case slowly turning down her invitations to hang out and discuss him should send her a message. Good luck!

Friday Feel Good: Dance Like No One's Watching!

TresSugar — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0700

Tengobaila cannot dance like no one's watching anymore, because she's become an Internet sensation thanks to Dlisted's Michael K who was mesmerized by her enthusiasm and her dancing skills in equal measure. Who among us has not danced in front of the mirror, making goofy faces while feelin' fine? Hopefully, my weekend will look a little more exciting than this, but hats off to Tengobaila for letting her freak flag fly! Happy Friday!