My experiences with Lolis

Hi all, well its almost time for this all to end, we got two more weeks, 2 more blog entries and well it has been a blast. When I first came into the classroom and found out that fashion was the subject I would have never thought that it would be this interesting, but I am glad that I was wrong. Now with our Compact Challenge coming to a conclusion, and even with my boasting that it is easy, I failed

Though I can avoid buying new clothes, accessories, video games, DVDs, CDs and about almost anything, but once I get a new toy, whether as a gift or something else, I have to get a few items for it, whether its just a simple protector case to some flashy extras.
When my dad got me my new iPod, it was not really breaking the challenge, but then I needed to get a case for it, otherwise I would have felt that it would not have lasted long, so I bought one. Otherwise any new items are only because they were necessary, new shoes to replace old ones and other stuff like that
Now moving on to this week’s topic, Loli fashion in Japan. While I have never been to Japan, I am quite familiar with Loli fashion and Loli culture, during my high school years Lolicon was a fascination of a couple friends of mine. To which utter annoyed and confused the hell out of me. This was during a strange “emo-esque” phase of my life so we would trade stories and write poetry. Now back to style of Loli, or gothic Loli, where young women dress up like they are younger girls. The idea of Lolis or Lolicon is a sexual fantasy of pedophilia, earning its name from the literary work “Lolita” by famous author Nabokov. Which details the madness of a man’s lust after his prepubescent stepdaughter as well as mainly other themes, but it is this one that describes Lolicon culture.

Now in Street Fashion, Gothic Loli as it is described in the article from the reader and in the Japanese lifestyle source, it is not overly sexual as suggested by the context of the Novel “Lolita” and is just an extension of “kawaii” culture that Japanese Teenage Girls have built up. Now my personal experience with this is with a friend of mine who liked the style and kind of adopted the Goth Loli look for a while. Now while the sexual connotation of the novel about pedophilia was something immoral I do think the Goth Loli look is pretty cute. I am not alone in this, there are many examples where this look is popular. In the Anime D. Gray Man there is a character to wears something pretty similar (shown at the top).

I recomend reading the novel "Lolita" by Nabokov it is an interesting read to say the least. Goth Lolita style like any other is a trend is a growing commercial enterprise that is a lot of fun.


Eric Keng

Entry #8

Works Cited

Yuniya Kawamura. “Japanese Teens as Producers of Street Fashion.” Class Reader.

Macias and Evers. “Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno.” Profile images. Class Reader.

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/fashion/gothic_lolita.html