rare and brutal -- news you can use

Today the Science Times has an article on cuteness, and why humans respond to visual cuteness cues. A friend who is herself "cute" in that mini-cooper way, used to tell me that cute can get away with a lot more than beauty where men are concerned. Another friend disagreed..."beauty rules" he said. The Times states: "Beauty is rare and brutal, despoiled by a single pimple. Cuteness is commonplace and generous, content on occasion to cosegregate with homeliness." The article goes on to talk about the human response to the cute, why it feels cheap, why some cultures (Japan) seem to crave the cute more than others. Then predictably it de-constructs some fuzzy animals' cuteness, (a baby penguin's wobbly walk, a panda's 2 toned face) into their survivalesque components.

The article is cute itself. But what i really liked about it was the phrase "beauty is rare and brutal." you don't find a phrase that nice in most news articles. I mean, Bush's latest idiocy or connivance (depending on your view of his iq) inspires nothing so poetic, and rightly so. Of course "cuteness" is not serious news. But hey, maybe it should be.

i'll drink to rare and brutal any day.