There's nothing like a kitten to bring out the cuteness aggression.
It's hard to explain the all-consuming adorableness of a kitten to someone who's never had one. Yes, we all see how cute they are in photos and videos, but falling in love, in real life, with a kitten of your own is a whole other level of swoon. Every single thing they do is cute. Every yawn. Every stretch. Every pounce. Don't even get me started on sneezes.
How many times have we seen the classic "didn't want a cat" story of a "not a cat person" falling hard and fast for a kitten? It happens. And a viral video of a man who is unable to contain himself over his new kitten's cuteness perfectly encapsulates what that looks like.
Kittens are the cutest. Photo credit: Canva
"Well, I'm just going to explode, aren't I?" the man says to the woman behind the camera before going on and on about how he'd step in front of a bullet for the kitten.
"Look at that cute little boy," he says as the small orange tabby lies curled up in a blanket. "Yeah, that's mine forever now. That's mine forever. And he comes before you, now. He's mine."
@waif8chimney So I guess I’d die for this kitty🤝
The pacing around with energy to burn. The "cute patootie bobooty." The "I'm literally going to explode" moving right into the "I'm going to eat him," and "I would die for you." The fact that they just met and he's already up to his eyeballs in gushy, smushy love. It's all so relatable to those of us who've gone off the deep end after adding a tiny furry feline to our family.
People in the comments shared the sentiment.
"I got a kitten a week ago and it literally pains me to leave her everyday. She’s all i think about 😭"
"The overstimulated pacing is so real.😂😂"
"Every second of this was the correct response."
"I just got two and the overload of emotions is beyond words."
"12 years later and I still talk about my cat like this 😂"
"The amount of times I tell her 'I'd shmurder for you!!'"
"The cuteness aggression is completely appropriate! 'Cutie-patootie-bobootie, I'm gonna eat em.'"
Grrrr, wook at his widdle paws and his widdle whiskers. Photo credit: Canva
Cute aggression is a real thing
Lots of people mentioned "cuteness aggression" in the comments, and that's exactly what we're witnessing in the video. When you feel so overwhelmed by the cuteness of something that you want to squish it, squeeze it, bite it, or even eat it? That's cute aggression, a term coined by social psychologist Oriana Aragon in 2014.
"Cute aggression seems to be a mechanism to manage the overload of positive feelings we can get when we interact with something too cute for us to handle," says Associate Professor Lisa A. Williams, a social psychologist from the University of New South Wales. "In other words, to counter an overwhelming barrage of positive feelings, we seek to tamp it down – and weirdly enough, that can play out as an aggressive inclination."
@sadiebreann_ unreal #cutenessaggression #motherhood #newborn #newbaby #motherhoodunplugged #motherhoodunfiltered #sahm #momlife #sahmsoftiktok #baby
It's not actually aggression in the strictest sense, as the impulse comes along with a strong feeling of wanting to protect the cute little animal, child, or whatever is causing the explosion of feeling. Like, you might feel a strong urge to bite your baby, but you would never actually bite your baby. You might want to squish your kitten or hug your puppy as tight as you can, but you wouldn't because you know it would harm them.
It's a weird contrast of feelings, but it's common. And it's hard to explain to people who don't experience it. Interestingly, Aragon says that those who do experience cute aggression also tend to experience other dimorphous expressions of positive emotion, which includes crying when happy. "People who, you know, want to pinch the baby's cheeks and growl at the baby are also people who are more likely to cry at the wedding or cry when the baby's born or have nervous laughter," she told NPR.
Whatever we call it, the urge to bite the baby or squish the kitten is real for many of us who feel totally seen in these videos.
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