Report Blog Entry
I've heard a lot of conversations about Gyaru's stand on beauty standarts and societal expectations for women so I just wanted to yap a bit about Lolita's perspective.
Lolita fashion also started as a protest of Japanese women against rigid patriarchal expectations for women both in their appearance and their lifestyle. It offered them an "escape" from a strict male-centered world to a carefree, whimsical fantasy. EGL takes the usual conservative concept of ideal female features such as modesty, femininity, elegance, youthfulness and reclaims them for a female gaze in a way that is considered nonconforming and "repelling" for men.
Some people think adult women that wear cute childlike clothes are sexualising children or practicing fetish ageplay (sadly the name "lolita" isn't helping...). However, I believe it is a very mysoginistic point of view that implies that everything a woman does is inherently sexual or meant to please men, which EGL fashion actually goes against. Lolita embraces the idea of individualism and self-expression that is free of conforming restrictions and based on your own desires and preferences. Despite the fact that Lolita fashion imposes certain requirements on the overall silhouette and coordination of clothing, it surely has room for creativity and uniqueness.
Though Lolita isn't exactly a feminist movement by itself (and also, unfortunately, it was a very toxic space in the past), it comes from feminist ideals and supports rebellion against patriarchal norms, the objectification and sexualization of women and stereyotipical societal expectations. EGL is inherently female-centric and creates a safe space for women to express themselves, build a community, find friends and support small buisnesses created by other women. Though it's also worth noting that Lolita is not only for women, there are a lot of brolitas and queer people!
Comments
Displaying 2 of 2 comments ( View all | Add Comment )
OwlLipgloss
I can't help but find it incredibly strange how often various fashions, especially ones that lean more into the feminine, get called 'sexual' in some form when it really isn't. This blog perfectly captures what I love about the lolita fashion style so much, despite me not really having the body that otherwise fits the requirements for a lot of the style.
Calling feminine fashion styles "sexual" is just another way of bringing women down and suppressing their attempts of rejecting patriarchal norms and creating safe spaces free of male-centric ideals. Offensive statements and objectification is, unfortunately, something women have to deal with when they don't fit into the societal expectations. But I think it's worth it, I love wearing my cute dresses and feeling like a princess, it might be considered childish by others but it is empowering for me and many other lolitas, it has an undeniable feminist impact and I'm here for it! EGL not being very inclusive when it comes to different body sizes is another con that I forgot to mention, but it is nice that this situation changed throughout the years. There are a lot Chinese indie lolita brands with a wide range of sizes and even Japanese brands like Metamorphose offer bigger sizes now :) I've heard from some plus-size lolitas that they feel much more confident when wearing EGL fashion so I hope it's the same for you. People of all sizes are welcome in Lolita <3
by xarii; ; Report
Mary Dreams
Essa foi uma analise inteligente, nunca tinha pensando por esse lado via apenas a moda Lolita como uma forma de se expressar e querer parecer não real, usando dos padrões de beleza de modo estravagante
I like to analyse everything from a feminist perspective to be honest, it's nice to see how even my interests like wearing cute lolita dresses somehow contribute to feminism <3
by xarii; ; Report