The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

childish objects; and the idea that, because she is vulnerable, she endeavours
to return to the safety of childhood through these things.
As Richie highlights:
In the West we are admonished by the highest authority to “put away childish
things”. In Japan, however, as a newspaper editorial recently stated, “experts
consistently point to the importance of cuteness in the Japanese value system.
Cuteness is considered to be good and a virtue. Unlike their counterparts in the
United States or Europe, youth in Japan feels less pressure to grow out of
childhood and rush into adulthood”. 112
This wish to return to or hang on to childhood, combined with the need for
security via familiarity with infantile things, becomes especially important, I
argue, when one considers the Gothloli’s motivation to represent herself,
visibly, as an innocent child or not-quite-adult female. This notion is further
supported by Japanese psychiatrist Rika Kayama who has claimed that, “by
dressing up like [frilly] babies, the Lolitas [sic] are attempting to hang on to
the carefree days of childhood”, 113 a time that, for many, feels safe.
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