By featuring food, cursed pics remind us of the invisible truth that we consciously try to think about as rarely as possible. We're just a glob of flesh full of millions of parasitic organisms floating through time and space. "They poke a hole in the lie we constantly tell ourselves that we're completely cerebral beings, above the filthiness surrounding the lives of animals," Maack writes.
But 'cursed' doesn't necessarily mean gross. It can just be slightly disturbing. As Jenny Odell, the author of How to Do Nothing, told The New Yorker, "'Cursed' brings to mind a sort of unholy juxtaposition—things that shouldn't be together, in a way that makes the whole thing feel senseless."
This can mean two things together that just feel deeply wrong when they are together. Because of its tamed nature when compared to other gross things that exist on the Internet, she calls cursed pics 'normcore horror.'
Cursed images put us off. As Már Másson Maack goes on in his piece about cursed pictures, they're about presenting familiar things in an unfamiliar light. Sometimes even literally: flash photography is a big part of the cursed image aesthetic, giving it even more of a DIY feel. The point of it is to enhance our perception of the familiar, Maack explains.
If you're a fan of cursed energy, we here at Bored Panda might have more things to your taste. There are pages dedicated to cursed foods. Even comments can be cursed, too. If you like venturing into the uncanny valley, cursed toys might be for you. And if you want to cleanse your palette after this possibly disturbing list, you can do so while looking at blursed images. They're pics that give off a blessed and cursed energy at the same time.
