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Defying the Lolita Complex
In returning to a critique of the Japanese movement – especially in light of
the paradigm known in Japan (and understood elsewhere) as the Lolita
Complex – it would appear that the adoption of the Lolita fashion style,
formed in the image of Dodgson’s Alice and named after Nabokov’s
sexually active child, would create an environment whereby the Gothloli
situates herself in a vulnerable position and thus plays into the Voyeur’s
hands (Figs 80 & 81). Paradoxically though, although she does place herself
in dangerous territory, the Gothloli, I strongly argue, is determined to
confront and deflect this position from within this construction.
As Hannah Feldman explains, in “[r]eclaiming Lolita’s alleged sexual
assertiveness” the contemporary Lolita also “appeals to the ‘new’ or ‘pro-
sex’ feminist agenda of overriding patriarchal hegemony by reclaiming the
desires on which it is based”. 192
In other words this new Lolita is restoring
the rights of the Nabokovian Lolita by taking back the balance of power. She
is in control of her identity.
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