The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

Masanobu Sugatsuke, editor of Composite, a Japanese fashion-and-
lifestyle magazine, is yet another commentator who has declared that, due to
this socio-economic environment, “Japanese people don’t want to be
growing up so quickly” and “would rather stay young mentally and
socially”. 122 Observing the Lolita subculture in this context, the former
creative director of Bennetton, Oliviero Toscani, has commented that:
The girls who gathered in Harajuku every weekend in their… romper-room dresses
and their silly shoes… were “tragic angels” living “the only existence in the world
that is alien to the problems of the contemporary world such as poverty, war…
discrimination or joblessness”. 123
Kawamura adds that a general “feeling of helplessness, disillusionment,
alienation, uncertainty and anger has permeated throughout society”. 124
In returning to the kawaisa paradigm, as Tomoyuki Sugiyama explains
it, this fear is reflected in the search for “spiritual peace and an escape from
brutal reality through cute things”. 125 The Lolita movement, in its
envelopment of cuteness, sweetness and innocence, can thus be identified as
a symptom of these societal and economic crises. In the Gothloli’s
regression back to childhood, there is therefore an air of sadness.
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