The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

young woman, my claim is that the Gothloli can be interpreted as
representing, simultaneously, the Perpetual Child and the Sexualised Child
and, therefore, there is an apparent semiotic conflict between the desire to
retain childhood innocence and being or becoming sexually active.
As the Gothloli image subconsciously recalls that moment whereby
sexual awakening is mingled with the sensation that innocence has been lost,
it can also be associated with a fear of or at least apprehension about
sexuality. In wanting to be seen as a child and hence projecting her
resistance to growing up, I believe that the Gothloli is refusing to become
sexual and or be sexualised.
I would also argue that the appearance of the Gothloli is not
consciously sexual. Sheila Burgel supports this by highlighting the Gothloli’s
“almost pathological obsession with modesty and the minutiae of etiquette”
that sits happily alongside a notion of “Queen Victoria’s strict moral
code”. 135 Many Lolita, all around the world, in fact choose this manner of
dress because they view it as modest and refined, which allows them to feel
pretty and elegant and at the same time non-sexual.
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