That’s the thing: it’s not an “objectively terrible image”.
Admittedly, it’s not very creative. But it’s not terrible in the sense that it looks exactly like someone spreading their butt-cheeks, or goatse, or whatever, before the fingers are drawn onto the cup. What it looks like is what it is: a pair of mittens, perhaps intended to be cradling the cup itself in it’s hands, or being warmed by the cup being held. And any reasonable, un-jaded person would think so too.
The fact that someone got “spreading butt-cheeks” out of it says more about them than it does the talent of the graphic artist in question.
I don’t mean to sound like a crank. I’m just bugged, is all. And no, I’m not disappointed! But all of this, in my mind, kinda relates to the whole “camel toe” thing. One can look at swimsuit photographs from first half of the 20th century and see cameltoes fairly often. The difference between then and now is that folks back then apparently either weren’t so zeroed-in on cameltoes, or weren’t concerned by them, or (more likely) had the common decency not to make a big deal about them when they occasionally, accidentally made an appearance, and either airbrushed them out, or simply went on about their business and ignored them.
Whatever. It’s just a jacked-up world when something as innocuous as a holiday image gets turned into scat humor and becomes as meme-worthy as all this, is all…
