am i cat pretty, opossum pretty, or rat pretty?
a little look into the "types of pretty" thing, and the usual fun stuff.
for a while now, there’s been a genre of tiktok where there will be some sort of music and a bunch of pictures of different pretty women that says something like “cat pretty,” “deer pretty,” “siren eyes” or whatever other descriptor of some sort of the aesthetic feature. i guess it’s a way of just celebrating different kinds of “pretty” but it’s usually just thin white people with good makeup and photo editing skills. anyway, recently the trend blew up more with filters that give you makeup that fits some of the big kinds of pretty (cat, deer, bunny, fox, whatever else) and that then finally got to twitter where people were like “what the fuck am i looking at?”
it’s so interesting to me how descriptors like these make the rounds and enter the minds of those who happen to find the content, because a lot of these things are ideas we would’ve never thought of ourselves. i always kind of thought i looked like a rat though (in a pretty, angular, serving cunt kind of way)
i don’t know how far back this goes, but years ago i remember seeing videos of people from a few east asian countries explaining types of beauty in animal terms. a chinese creator made a whole series of videos about things like having a snake face or a puppy face, and there was a korean website that would tell you if you looked like a bunny or a cat or however many other cute little animals (i would link these if i could, but i literally cannot find them).
on one level, i think it’s fascinating how we’re kind of obsessed as humans with categorizing ourselves. from things like personality tests and astrology to fitting into an “aesthetic” to kibbe and seasonal colour theory, we love to create systems and put ourselves into little boxes to resonate with and relate to others. it’s not a bad thing per se, it kind of reflects our human nature. humans need community and to share bonds with others, and this is just a way of doing that.
another level i think the phenomenon is interesting on is, as humans, how we relate ourselves to other animals. it’s really easy for humans to forget that we are all animals, but we still like to compare ourselves and each other to animals. having saying someone has cat-like reflexes, saying matty healy looks like the rat from flushed away, or that all aquarius men look like frogs.
this phenomenon of likening people to animals obviously also extends into racism, where scientific racism consisted of people like josiah clark nott and george robins gliddon saying that people from africa were like chimpanzees, and the nazi party spreading propaganda saying that jewish people were rat-like vermin or cockroaches. needless to say, this dehumanizing racism makes the cute little trend of saying you have a cat face at least a bit unpalatable. i know saying you look like a little bunny or a deer is all in good fun, but i can’t help but think of the ways that likening humans to other animals has been used in dehumanizing and racist ways.
overall, i do find the animal types of a pretty trend cute on the surface, but it’s always worth remembering the way that animal descriptors can be used to disrespect and discriminate against marginalized groups. as long as we’re keeping the animal comparisons positive, that’s fine by me. anyway, am i cat pretty or rat pretty?
track of the week
i’ve been listening to this album a lot lately and i think the first track is just such a strong start and it’s really emotional. courtney love’s screaming and repetition make it super charged and so angry. this is a quintessential hole song!
the signs as sandwiches
aries - cheesesteak
taurus - beef dip
gemini - sloppy joe
cancer - grilled cheese
leo - meatball sub
virgo - tiny cucumber sandwich with no crust like the ones at a tea party
libra - pb&j
scorpio - reuben
sagittarius - falafel wrap
capricorn - banh mi
aquarius - hot dog
pisces - tuna melt