More on the Cult of Cute

[gurdymonkey]

This article dates to 2006, but I remember when I first read it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13320352/ns/business-world_business/t/japanese-culture-becoming-cult-cute/#.Tn4uSOwrXSs "“I make it a point never to forget to smile,” said [model Yuri] Ebihara, often seen
in TV ads and on billboards. “If someone doesn’t find me cute, I want to know why because then I’ll work on it to get better at being cute.”"

These roots are older, deeper, and sometimes creepier than Hello Kitty and Sailor Moon. Literature from the Heian and Kamakura periods in Japan routinely describe the sexual initiation of girls of about 12 or 13 by older men. Try to imagine being raped at that age while your parents pretend they don't know what is going on, then scold you for not appreciating the great honor you've been given. http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/Forced_Affection.html  offers a survey of examples from period literature. Even today, apprentice geisha or maiko wear kimono that code as child-like, complete with growth-pleats at the shoulder seams and long, fluttering sleeves.

Not judging here, just reporting. I wasn't born Japanese, after all.

Comments

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

I started to comment here and it ran too long! So I put it in my own blog here.

EDIT: Well,I had an entry, until LJ ate it during an edit. :-/

Will comment again when I have time later today. Because I'm sure not going to retype all that again.