Pitch 3 -- Lolita and Cultural Appropriation

Hello Scott,

When you hear the term "Lolita," what's the first thing you think of? It's ok, we can admit that we're all thinking of the same thing -- The Japanese Street Fashion. I think of the fashion first because that was where I first heard the term used as a teenager interested in alternative fashion. Of course most of these clothes are pricey enough to bankrupt a third world country. My youthful dreams were not meant to be. As Lolita means something entirely different in western culture. Different ideas of nymphets and pedophiles may have crossed your mind along with Nabokov. The sexually exploitative Humbert Humbert and the innocent Lolita are part of common culture wither one has read the book or not. The street fashion has a different focus. Many who wear the fashion regularly state that they are living with the modesty and purity of a princess. Some also wear the clothes because they are cute. The closest Lolita gets to sexualizing innocent fashion is within it's subculture of Ero-Lolita, which is modest in comparison to many Western styles. Lolita fashion is an interesting phenomena in itself as it's influenced by European styles of the past such as Victorian and Rococo. That itself was an example of cultural appropriation, but then the style took off in other parts of the world including the United States.

The old ideas of Western culture were cycled back in to interested through another culture. However, the idea seemed to change within the context of Western culture and our idea of the Lolita. Our Halloween costumes of the style are much more sexualized than the original style such as: the Sweeter Than Candy Lolita Costume and the Lolita Lollipop Girl Costume. An obvious connection can be made to the Novel and it's movie adaptation. However, the sexualization of this style could also apply to our racist ideas that Asians are more submissive than other peoples; particularly women. Our interest in their culture increased with our colonization and our interest with their culture has increased once again when we have started to have more fears about America losing some of it's power and status in the eyes of the world. As a way to deal with this lost status. Is it possible that we are reawakening stereotypes that were never properly dealt with culturally? We have taken our idea of Asian sexual submission and applied it to a subculture that idealized childlike innocence. Is our misinterpretation an example of our racial anxieties or just another misunderstanding?

Does this idea interest you? Let me know.

Regards,
Emily Williams

http://hellolace.net/about/the-fashion I intend to use this website to help me navigate certain complexities of Lolita culture on a basic scale. I have been intersted in the past. I haven't kept up with the culture and there were some subcultures within the subculture I didn't know about. I also feel this would help me at least with siting sources of contention about things like Ero-Lolita

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libdb.ppcc.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=09117196-5658-4d42-b496-0083b01a0bc1%40sessionmgr4003&vid=0&hid=4106&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=99140306 This is a scholarly article that discussces cultural appropriation surroudning Lolita culture. It helped to achieve a firmer understanding of the place Lolita fashion takes in Japanese culture beyond "those clothes look cool."