The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

out adolescence, the transitional phase between younger childhood and
adulthood, whereby sexuality becomes ambiguous and or masked, and is an
extension of that precious moment before one must deal with some of the
harsher realities of life.
In this way, the Japanese Lolita hangs on to her innocence or
postpones its potential loss. Ironically this empowers the Lolita. For while
Nabokov’s heroine is a vulnerable but corrupted victim, the Japanese Lolita
declines to appear corruptible by projecting a sexually immature or innocent
little girl image.
This means that while membership of the Japanese Lolita subculture
symbolises and demonstrates several things – amongst them a yearning to
return to the preciousness and safety of the childhood state; the desire to
prolong childhood innocence, and thus resist sexual, adult pressures; and the
fear of entering the daunting world of adult responsibilities and anxieties –
being Lolita is also a declaration through visual signs that one is not ready to
grow up; to be taken or used, emotionally or physically; or to become a
married woman, a mother and or mother figure; roles that have, traditionally
and historically, been the ultimate destinies of the Japanese girl.
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