Gigil: So cute you can't stand it

Source: Pixabay

Gigil (Tagalog)

Does anyone remember Elmyra from Animaniacs? She was an eccentric little girl who would get a severe case of “the squeezies” every time she came upon an adorable animal. She would shriek and threaten to love and hug and squeeze them all up. Elmyra was terrifying. But her urge to aggressively hug cute things? I get it.

When I see something cute—a big-eared kitten or my toddler’s tiny toes—I get this weird urge to bite my tongue. Like Elmyra, I’m overwhelmed by adorableness, and this is how the overwhelm manifests. The cuter the thing, the harder I bite. I do this so often that I now have a permanent indentation on my tongue. It’s a reminder of something called “gigil.”

In Tagalog, the word gigil describes the overwhelming affection some people feel when faced with something adorably cute, often accompanied by the desire to protect or take care of that thing. This feeling is also referred to as “cuteness aggression.” It’s the urge to pinch a baby’s cheeks. Or squeeze a fluffy puppy. Or bite your tongue when your cat gives you a hug. There are a few theories about what drives gigil—it might be that cuteness triggers such high levels of positive emotion, our brain can’t handle it, so we release that energy through seemingly aggressive behaviors, which brings the affection back to a manageable level.

Whatever the reason behind gigil, the word captures the playful side of human emotions, reminding us that in a chaotic world, there's still room for cheek-squeezing, heart-melting joy.

From the archives

If you’re as interested in gigil as I am, you might enjoy this 2020 piece I wrote for WIRED: The Power of Kawaii: How Cute, Squishy Things Influence Us. In it, I interviewed Hiroshi Nittono, a Kawaii researcher at Osaka University:

“Nittono’s research hypothesizes that cuteness might trigger something called approach motivation, which is an impulse toward a positive stimulus. Approach motivation allows us to focus better on systematic processes that require us to be careful, like driving, completing tasks at work, or playing a game of Operation.”

What’s new?

• I like Austin Kleon’s suggestion to turn books into toys. “...little kids have a tendency to ignore purpose-built toys in favor of things they can turn into toys, like cardboard boxes, sticks, dirt, etc…It makes me wonder if irreverence towards an object is the first step towards turning it into a toy, a plaything.”
  

• I’ve been enjoying The Autonomous Creative, a podcast by writer and artist Jessica Abel. Here’s a great interview with writer Alexander Chee.
  

• I visited a friend in Montana. It’s one of the prettiest, most contemplative places I’ve ever been. Even the bathroom graffiti is interesting…

Stay cute,

Kristin