The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

It was also in the nineties that Japan began to face one of its worst
phases of economic instability, societal upheaval and cultural malaise. As a
result, it is my argument that in a similar way to British Punk, which was also
representative of a generation reacting against society and fearful for its
future, the Lolita subculture demonstrates similar anxieties, and hence a
reluctance to move into the uncertain adult world, a wish to escape reality a
subconscious desire to remain in, or return to, the security of childhood,
symbolised in the impulse to dress as a child.
It is this childlike image, however, that causes some critics to disregard
the Lolita movement and to observe it as just another superficial example of
the widespread Japanese attraction to cute things. Indeed it is also this
“cute” element that drives some members of the subculture toward the
adoption of the Lolita identity.
While the Cute paradigm is related to childhood innocence and,
therefore, the Lolita look is believed, especially by participants, to project an
image of modesty and purity, there is a sexual connotation in the term
“Lolita”, especially connected with the heroine of Vladimir Nabokov’s
novel. Ever since the release of Lolita in 1955, the name has been coloured
by the young female protagonist, and has generally come to stand for a
promiscuous or sexually provocative little girl, or “nymphet”.
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