‘Just a Dumb Bunny’: The Conventions and Rebellions of the Cutified Feminised Animal

Abstract

ABSTRACT Cuteness is primarily associated with a trivial superficiality, so it is perhaps no surprise to find it a relatively ignored aesthetic within environmental thought, which tends to favour seriousness and complexity. The emerging field of cute studies has, however, begun to trouble such associations. This article offers an environmental lens on cute studies by taking, as its case study, the cutified, feminised animal and developing Sianne Ngai’s discourse on the power dynamics inherent to cuteness. Examining vivid examples from Hello Kitty to D. H. Lawrence’s poems, I argue that cuteness objectifies and ‘others’ female and animal identities, often to violent effect. Given the cutified, feminised animal’s supposed passivity, what resistance can be expected? Analysing Aase Berg’s bloodthirsty guinea-pig poems, I argue that horror tropes undertaken in a camp, comedic style serve to expose the violence within cuteness, generating an important opportunity for an environmental reframing of the cute.