Woman.
Cute, to me, means when I look at something, or when someone does something for me, it inspires irresistable smiles or giggles, because whatever I’m looking at/or experiencing is innocent of the idea that it is so darn adorable. The feeling is often flooded with overwhelming love for whatever it is, unconditional and often illogical. My heart beats a little faster - but, it is, in no way, sexual. ie: Puppies, kittens, babies, little girls skipping happily with ice cream cones, a dress that is totally my style, haning there on the rack as if it were made just for me = awwww! So cute!
It can, however, be a bridge to something more sexual. ie: My husband walking in with a big grin on his face and wearing nothing but whipped cream. It’s cute because he set out to be sexy, but he just looks so silly. But I am suddenly filled with love for him and his goofy smile and the whipped cream making a mess all over the damned floor, and he’s suddenly just the cutest thing ever. He’s like a puppy who got into the toilet paper rolls. How could you ever be mad at someone you love so much and looks so eager? That feeling turns into something a little deeper as it sinks in that, hey, not only does he look cute, he *wants * me, too. Hey, he’s pretty sexy. To hell with the mess, let’s have sex now.
That’s probably a little extreme, and FTR, the above situation has never happened, just for those who may think I’m sharing TMI. I’m just trying to find a way to bridge cute to sexy, because I know it happens and I can’t think of anything specific.
I know teenaged girls use it an awful lot, but they use a lot of words an awful lot that may or may not mean exactly what’s intended. I think they mostly mean it in a visual context: “That boy is cute!” but at that stage of our lives, there are a lot of raging hormonal changes happening, and it is often demure slang for “I’d hit it.” There are older women who still use it in this way, as well. While we are experiencing a greater amount of sexual freedom, we’re still living in an age where, to both men and women, speaking out loud about wanting to sleep with anything more than one man for the rest of your life gets you labelled a slut by many, many people. So it’s sometimes a euphemism.
Speaking with a wide brush now, but men, in my experience, tend to say what they mean. There are many definitions, but when most people open a dictionary, I feel they are thinking to see this one (despite it not being the first entry):
[QUOTE=Dictionary.com]
**cute **
adjective
- attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness; “a cute kid with pigtails”; “a cute little apartment”; “cunning kittens”; “a cunning baby” [syn: cunning]
- obviously contrived to charm; “an insufferably precious performance”; “a child with intolerably cute mannerisms”
[/QUOTE]
When a man uses the word “cute”, there tends to be a pause when we hear it - it depends hugely on context. When another woman says it, it’s often apparent to us what she means, as we are usually well versed in the varying shades of what “cute” means coming from another female. But men generally don’t use it as often as we do, and so it takes time to wonder: “What shade of cute does he mean? Do I make him think of a child? Or am I being childlike (which, for whatever reason, isn’t as bad)? Did I just do something to make him say that? Do I have mustard on my shirt? Is my hair sticking up weird? Does he want to sleep with me (this is likely the right answer but I’ve been jaded in the past and I don’t like to jump to conclusion until I analyse every last thing from the shoes he was wearing to the lilt of his voice when he said it with five of my best girlfriends, three random females, two of my closest gay friends, and make up an internet poll about the whole thing before I’ll ever believe that he wants to get with me)? WTH?” <– wide brush, wide, wide brush.
Ultimately, it depends on the individual. My husband, FTR, thinks I’m super cute. To this, I generally respond with a playful pout and a loud, “NUT UH!” Until he argues back “YAH HUH!” I take a playful jab and counter the argument with the same “NUT UH!” and he jabs back and we go round and round indefinitely, or until we wind up on the couch in a vicious tickle fight.
I like it just fine, though. It may not be “sexy”, but it means that when he looks at me, he feels like I was just made especially for him, at that moment, to bring a smile to his face and fill his heart to capacity. And that most certainly could lead to better things.
AWWWW!
And I haven’t even* touched * on the sarcasm factor.
