Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Cute vs Handsome

Recently a blogger friend wrote a fictional story. In that fictional story, a few college girls were going gaga over a guy and thought he was cute. After reading that, I started to think about it.

As for as I know, you call a girl “cute”. And, call a guy “handsome”. Is it OK to call a guy “cute”? It is a social norm that men are handsome and women are beautiful and pretty and cute.

Let us take the easier one first. We should never call a woman handsome. Agreed?

I asked my friends and relatives about this. A little unscientific survey. Here are some of their answers:

Cute if you (man) have a childish look or if you are small in height.

Depends. Some cute can mean real hot.

A girl will call a guy cute when he is really cute; I mean a girl will find someone/something cute when she can play with it. No romantic intention.

If a guy is not that handsome, you say cute so that you don’t hurt his feeling.

Cute means she finds you hot and attractive.

Cute means someone who has child like looks. Like Lionel Messi is cute, Tom Cruise is cute. It doesn't mean hot or not so good looking.

Cute means you are attractive but not her type.

If I say a guy is cute, I mean he’s good looking and I find him attractive. Handsome is an old word to describe an old man. I would say my grandfather is handsome.

If an old lady calls a young man cute, it is motherly affection.

When a guy is cute, it's like he's more sensitive and sweet, and attractive in the way that he has this way of making you smile and saying romantic things.

Puppies are cute and babies in diapers are cute. They are small and attractive and fun to be with and you want one. So a guy can be cute to a girl.

The result: Split decision. Looks like “cute” is an acceptable word to describe an attractive hot guy.

My apologies to Revathi for trying to correct her.

What y'all think?

7 comments:

  1. This article is cute.

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  2. Tom Cruise is cute?
    NO WAY - I don't think so.

    Regards,
    Katie Holmes

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  3. Thanks for your comments The Cagey Bee. Long time no see. You are handsome.

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  4. Thanks for your comments Katie. Tom Cruise may not be cute in your eyes. But his hefty divorce settelement is very cute. Handsomely rewarded.

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  5. I do call men cute..I never thought it was wrong...your post triggered a dictionary search and it turns out that it is pretty alright to call men cute as it also means "appealing and delightful; charming" ...

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  6. Thanks for your comments Aparna. I agree with you.

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  7. hey SG, saw this post of urs just now:)
    why apologies, m so happy that you conducted an entire research on a quote in my blog.After your comment even i was confused as to if 'cute ' is appropriate to be used for boys

    This post did answer my questions :) Indeed guys can be cute, just like this post.

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