Cuter Than a Surprised Kitten

Inthis month’s Vanity Fair, contributing editor Jim Windolf tries to analyze the wave of cute overtaking our culture. From Hello Kitty to the laughing baby (you know which baby) (yes you do) (you don’t?Really?), Windolf leaves no fuzzy, big-eyed stone unturned. And he thinks it’s getting worse. Why now?

A few years ago — before the baby neared 100 million views on YouTube — we took our own look at cute. Japanese art mogul Takashi Murakami explained how cute is a reaction to the atom bomb; and we heard what it’s like to hate cute in a too-cute world. Not pretty.