The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

Being a Woman in Japan
As also discussed previously, the development of the Lolita phenomenon in
Japan can be aligned with kawaisa as an effect of post-war anxieties whereby
gender relations have become distorted. In my opinion, the subculture can
also be observed in terms of a reaction against the establishment of an
institutionalised method of patriarchal control.
My stance that Lolita in fact bucks this system may appear to be a
contradiction, in consideration of the psyche of the post-war male, in that,
due to aforementioned insecurities, women find themselves in the
dichotomous roles of both mother and young girl in relationships with men.
For in her identification as the Child-woman/Woman-child it may appear
that the Gothloli is symbolically playing into the hands of this patriarchal
construct and resigning herself to an expected life of subservience.
However, paradoxically, as I maintain that in choosing to represent
herself as a woman who prefers to be a child, the Gothloli is in fact refusing
to conform to these traditional roles and responsibilities.
The Gothloli’s childish behaviour, especially in regard to playing with
dolls, which I have previously interpreted as not being prepared to grow up
and have one’s own babies, also demonstrates not only a desire to postpone
becoming a real mother but to conceive the babies in the first place, let
alone taking on the role of the mother figure, sexually and metaphorically,
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