I tried to explain the concept of cute aggression to someone who’s never experienced it before. It did not go well. They thought I wanted to hurt puppies.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s when you see a cute thing, like a puppy. And it makes you want to shake the puppy and hug him so tight that his body turns into liquefied puppy batter that splatters all over your face.
…I’m bad at explaining things.
Yeeeeah… um… except OP includes the consequences. Most people want to squeeze but stop at the wanting to splatter their pets to goo. That’s where it goes from “normal” to “psycho.”
Really. Do you really empathize with squeezing your pet so hard you kill it? I think most people’s cute aggression desire stops before the killing.
it’s a bit like intrusive thoughts, a mental picture of violence. it’s a bit embarrassing to acknowledge to have such violent imagery, but i don’t act on it.
Intrusive thoughts is something many people have, and if you aren’t damaged as fuck, you won’t act on them. Something else to compare it with would be the call of the void - that feels similar.
I definitely understand the call of the void. The mental image of killing my cats quells any desire to squish them - for me - but I get it.
I want a quantum superstate to exist wherein I both squeeze my cat as hard as I want and she enjoys the experience, suffering no harm.
Yes!
Current understanding of cat psychology is that being constrained is calming to them, so there’s a good chance that your cat enjoys being given a firm but gentle (i.e., not to goo) squeeze.
A hypothetical pet that’s basically a stress ball that loves being squished would be ideal, but a cat is pretty close!