The word “kawaii” has been used by Japanese people for centuries. It’s not known exactly how it was originated. However, we can pinpoint some events in history that led to what we know today as cute culture.
It started in the late 60s, a time avowed for its’ rebellion and liberation. Worldwide, people were protesting as the youth didn’t want to be associated with the older generations and their oppressing mindsets. Consequentially, they strived to differentiate themselves from their elderly counterparts as much as possible, defying cultural standards.
While in Britain, teens demanded to be seen as independent and mature through their spunky clothing and love for rock music, Japanese adolescents refused to grow up and take things seriously. They began to break free from society’s norms on how an adult Japanese should behave.
Fast-forward a few years. We see the first fallouts of this inconformity as it culminated. University students opposed authority by refusing to go to lectures and reading children’s comics (manga), disputing prescribed academic knowledge. Subsequent, high school girls created Gyaru-Moji, girly handwriting in which they mocked the rigidness of Kanji and let’s not forget the iconic seifuku, which was originally based on Japan’s military uniform. During the late 70’s it was repurposed as a powerful symbol of anti-establishment.
These demonstrations of dissatisfaction paved the way for the uprise of cute culture or “kawaii” culture in Japan, which, nowadays, is the most common way of cultural rebellion.
Looking at the adult landscape, it’s not hard to understand how “kawaii” quickly absconded from the shadows and became mainstream. It was a form of escapism that allowed the individual to drown themselves in nostalgia. It became a promised Neverland for those who wished to rid themselves of the pressure, the debt, the responsibility, and the competition that putrefied adulthood and made it overbearing. Instead, these people craved the unconsciousness and innocence that childhood brought with it.
Cute became not only a way of resisting the adult world but also a way of fighting back against the curtailment of possibility.
Throughout the 20th century, especially during World War II, Japanese women had always been expected to be mature and to abdicate their childhood for the good of their country. They were taught that this sacrifice was necessary and dignifying since they were helping to populate the nation with future labor force and recruits for the army.
When cute culture emerged, these women saw a way of renouncing their sexual side and all the subjugation it implied.
However, “kawaii” doesn’t only mean cute. It’s also closely associated with the connotation of “pitiful”. It’s evoked by anyone who appears young but also by those who appear weak or helpless. Therefore, when teens try to act cute, they do so by hiding their strengths and appearing frail and dependent.
Nowadays, Japanese feminists charge that all this cute chic is really about the cultural domination and exploitation of women (Bremner, 2006). It encourages young girls well into their late 20s to act submissive, weak, and innocent rather than mature, assertive, and independent.
It all may seem like just speculation, however judging by Japan’s need to portray Wonder Woman, a symbol of feminism, as cute and naive to appeal to the masses, it speaks volumes.
“Cuteness” in Japan was primordially a phenomenon started by the youth. But, soon enough, the industry found a way to capitalizing from it. Thus, kawaii is a by-product of affluence as it correlates with the rise of a potent consumer society in the 70s and a media culture that sustained it. The postwar boom ushered a consumer culture with its rising incomes and burgeoning media that fueled fads and the whims of the young.
Like comfort food, we seek out cute things when we need reassurance because of stress, and companies caught on this early on as the discontent adolescents sought after endearing things.
Soon enough, businesses started mass marketing products that appealed to the child in each of us, profiting out of people’s need for escapism from their decrepit reality.
In conclusion, is cute culture good or bad? Perhaps both and neither. It’s a legitimate subcultural form and a soporific soother. A form of resistance as a capitalist pacification. Ultimate allowance and refusal. Symptom and cure. To be simultaneously an adult and a child, conscient but innocent, is to bestride both worlds. It’s a symbol of resistance and ceaseless possibilities.
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