The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

“Kasutei” chooses the Lolita style precisely because she sees it as non-
sexual, modest, “romantic and elegant”. * She states, “I like art and history.
Lolita fashion is inspired by history yet… [it] is cute and pretty. Also… it
covers up everything”. † She goes even further to claim that “as [it is] a non-
sexual fashion… it appeals to [her]… asexuality”. ‡ Kasutei also agrees that
the style should not expose flesh: “I sometimes feel self-conscious in
anything mildly revealing that might [even] hint at sexuality because it’s just
not me”. § She declares, “It’s not my fault if somehow [sic] wants to twist and
and make it a sexual thing”. **
This attitude that the wearer of true Lolita fashion should come across
as being non-sexual is commonly upheld by Gothloli worldwide. There is,
though, a dichotomy or at least an ambiguity in regard to the Gothloli image
in that it neither wholly represses nor completely embraces a sexualised
identity, and yet it does both. The Gothloli, even in the sense of her
terminology as “Lolita”, especially in consideration of its Nabokovian
undertones (or perhaps overtones), appears at once as the precocious
Sexualised Child and also as an adult or young woman who wishes to be a
* Personal communication between “Angelic Lolita” and “Kasutei” (Kirkcaldy, Scotland) on
MySpace, www.myspace.com/botticelliangel_nz, 17 January, 2010.
† Ibid.
‡ Ibid.
§ Ibid.
** Ibid.
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