I was always under the impression, "he's cute", while it _could_
mean "aww, how cute" (which in itself can be demeaning when
speaking about another person but it's not _quite_ as bad: Just
think about to being a little kid and being called 'cute' gets
to feel awkward and annoying after a while, at least it was to
me)... ... but it often means, "What's his number? where does he
work? anybody know anything about him?" and all in the direction
that goes