TresSugar

Turn-On or Turn-Off: Guys With Accents

DearSugar — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:00:00 -0800

Thank goodness for TiVo! Just like many of you probably did, I raced home yesterday to catch Brad Pitt on Oprah. I wasn't digging his mustache per se, but my ears perked up when I heard him talk. When did he get that accent? I've always been a sucker for a man with a foreign accent, but Brad's southern drawl definitely piqued my interest. Are you with me on this one? Are men with accents a turn-on or a turn-off?

Do, Dump or Marry?

DearSugar — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:18:52 -0700

Hugh Jackman sure is a tall drink of water in his new movie Deception! I've always been a sucker for a man with an accent, but Hugh has the looks to match making him all the more desirable. He can sing, he can act, and he's great with kids, so even though he's off the market, tell me ladies, would you do, dump, or marry Hugh Jackman?

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Do Tell: What Accent Do You Find Sexy?

DearSugar — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 07:00:00 -0700

I have always been a sucker for a man with an accent - no matter what they say, they sound sexy! Since I don't live abroad, it's not all that common to chat with a foreigner, but I have a funny feeling I am not alone when I say an accent really brings up the "it" factor. So ladies, do tell, if you could pick any accent or second language for your boyfriend or husband to speak, what accent would you want to hear everyday?

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Do Tell: What's the Sexiest Foreign Accent?

TresSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

Maybe we can blame the foreign exchange students in high school or the soap operas we watched that featured mysterious foreigners whose arrival shook up small towns like the fictional Port Charles. Whatever the cause, a lot of chicks love a foreign accent.

Well, the results of a worldwide poll asking 5,000 women who has the sexiest accent have yielded an answer: the Irish. For decades, French men held the title. (Tant pis, mes amis!) The Irish and their sexy (if indecipherable) lilts were followed by the accents of Italian, Scottish, French and Australian men, in that order. (Americans were in tenth place.)

If you like a man with a foreign accent, what do you think is the sexiest?

British Kitty Says 'Allo!

GiggleSugar — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:30:16 -0700

It's impressive enough when a cat can talk, but this one seems to have acquired an English accent. His other hobbies include taking tea, chasing "birds," and feasting on fish and chips.

Très Cool! Babies Cry in Their Native Language

TresSugar — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0800

I've always found it fascinating that dogs "bark" in different languages. Though we say "ruff ruff" in English, that same noise is expressed as "ouah, ouah" in French. Now here's something even cooler: German researchers have started to think that babies' wails sound different depending on what language their parents speak.

The scientists observed 60 babies born to families speaking French and German and found that the infants could be absorbing their parents' accents from inside the womb. In the last three months of pregnancy, babies have already begun to memorize sounds, and based on the analysis of the babies' cry "melodies," the sounds mapped closely to the parents' accents:

The French newborns cried with a rising "accent" while the German babies' cries had a falling inflection.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, they say the babies are probably trying to form a bond with their mothers by imitating them.

The findings suggest that unborn babies are influenced by the sound of the first language that penetrates the womb.

Fascinating, right? Now I want to hang out with a big international gang of babies and see if their cries all sound different. Wait, that means being trapped in a room with a bunch of crying babies - nevermind!

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.

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Dear Poll: What's Sexier? A Uniform or an Accent?

DearSugar — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:00:00 -0700

If there are any two things that can up a man’s sex appeal instantaneously, they’d have to be a uniform and an accent. Uniforms are classy, yet masculine, and an accent is just plain seductive. I’ll take an Italian doctor any day! But if I had to choose one, my vote would be for a steamy accent. Which would you choose?

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Do, Dump, or Marry? Ed Westwick

TresSugar — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:00:00 -0700

Ed Westwick's character on Gossip Girl went from being a bad guy to the smart, troubled guy who's actually sensitive. Basically, the kind of bad boy too many women fall for!

I wish he used his real British accent on the show - guys are always 10 times more attractive with an accent. With or without an accent - what do you think of him?

Say What? Senator Talks to Sonia Like Ricky

TresSugar — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:00:00 -0700

"You'll have lots of splainin' to do."

- Republican Senator Tom Coburn tried on a Ricky Ricardo accent today at Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. Does this sound, to you, like racial insensitivity or an unfortunate accident? To see the clip for yourself, read more.