Childlike Escapism and Gender
By: Eli, Harper and Rumi
Reading:
Kinsella, Sharon. (1995) “Cuties in Japan” in Women, Media, and Consumption in Japan, ed. Brian Moeran and Lise Skov (1st ed.). Routledge, 220-254.
Summary:
Drawing on ethnographic research of the Japanese popular culture ‘kawaii,’ Sharon Kinsella’s (1995) Cuties in Japan explores and critically analyzes how the permeation of “cuteness” into various aspects of Japanese society functions in relation to gender roles, consumer culture, and identity formation. Viewing this phenomenon as a movement predominantly driven by young women, which overwhelms and threatens traditional Japanese culture, Kinsella argues that cute culture is an "escape hatch” from the extremely demanding, modern reality of being an adult in Japan. This escape is achieved through the romanticization of childhood. What started in the 1970s as retaliation to restricting industrious-capitalistic norms is often adopted in order to “fulfill spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and sexual needs and desires which were not met within the fabric of their lives at work” (Kinsella 1995, 252). Kawaii culture originated with cute handwriting and slang and eventually grew to include cute clothes, food, and idols. Through the example of “Cute Idols,” Kinsella shows a direct link between being cute and being childlike, and even more specifically, “a sense of weakness and disability” (Kinsella 1995, 236). As evidence, Kinsella (1995) cites Kin and Gin, a famous set of one hundred-year-old twins who were a pop culture craze in 1991. Although Kin and Gin could not present themselves in a childlike way because of their old age, they still garnered popularity and “cuteness” due to their age-based weaknesses. Kawaii is about returning to a childlike state: weak, innocent, unconscious, naive, and capitalizing on these qualities. Being kawaii is not seen as an act but rather as a genuine and “unconscious involvement” (Kinsella: 240). This is very ironic in Kinsella’s opinion because “cute is in fact extremely artificial and stylised” (Kinsella 1995, 240).
The “extremely artificial and stylised” nature of kawaii culture makes it susceptible to consumerist appropriation. For example, Japanese love hotels, which sell rooms for sex, adorn the names of “good” girls like Anne of Green Gables or Laura from House on the Prairie, an obvious appropriation of notably Western culture. These establishments assume cute culture to distract from the “dirty” business that happens there. These service providers actively endorse images/identities of kawaii culture which make them more palatable, while still inherently profiting from the potential exploitation of women through sex work. Initially, young women were actively involved in cute culture through consumption, fashion, and behavior, while men played a more passive role. However, towards the late 1980s, more men began to participate, leading to androgynous and asexually infantile trends. Critics, both among young people and conservative intellectuals, opposed cute culture, viewing it as infantile, feminine, and thus detrimental to traditional Japanese values. However, cute culture served as a form of resistance against societal expectations, especially for young women, allowing them to assert their identity and autonomy.
References
Kinsella, Sharon. (1995) “Cuties in Japan” in Women, Media, and Consumption in Japan, ed. Brian Moeran and Lise Skov (1st ed.). Routledge, 220-254.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315026312
How would you describe the “taste” of the text?
With such an emphasis on “cute” we wanted to focus heavily on music that reflected this “cute” vibe. For us, this was high-pitched voices and childlike rhythms, and naturally, we found this in Japanese pop songs with artists such as Kyari Kyari Pamyu, Yumiko, Jun Togawa, and Seiko Matsuda. Although, we also wanted to find the themes of this text in different genres, that are, to be frank, the opposite of the “cute” vibe. By incorporating different genres which aren’t as “cute,” such as psychedelic rock, we wanted to pay homage to different kinds of music which derived from other counterculture movements.
How does this playlist complement the text?
We wanted to complement the text sonically and vibe-wise through the use of kawaii Japanese pop music. Kinsella mentions the hit artist Matsuda Seiko in the section “Cute Idols”, therefore we felt it necessary to include one of her songs: we choose “Eightteen” from her 1980 album Diamond Bible. It was also important to us to incorporate songs from other genres, for example the song “Introspection” by UMI, an American artist who has a Japanese mom and a Black father. Umi is the artist's middle name and translates to “ocean” in Japanese. UMI’s music is mainly R&B and neo-soul, and in an interview with COMPLEX, she spoke about her work in a male-centric industry, saying, “I'm really intentional about increasing the number of women I work with and making sure they resonate with my energy” (Yu 2019). Her song “Introspection” is about finding strength from within to push through challenges, which also reflects the struggle of participants in Kawaii culture, who looked inward to find a childlike spirit to face their challenges in adulthood. In the song “Suki Suki Daisuki” by Jun Towaga, she sings about a very violent love over an upbeat track and in a high-pitched voice, therefore complementing the reality of love hotels, which used cute characters to create a facade over the reality of the business.
How did you decide on the order and transitions between each song, including how to begin and how to end?
We started the playlist with quintessentially “cute” songs that follow the patterns of childlike voices and softness that we immediately noticed in Japanese pop. Although, we wanted to push ourselves to look outside of this genre, and see how we could view kawaii in other genres. To make this transition use the song “Suki Suki Daisuki” by Jun Towaga into the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.”. Surrounding the middle counterculture songs with the “cute” vibes felt appropriate because we’re able to create a full circle listening experience that encapsulates our vision of the article. We used “Melting” by Kali Uchis to transition back into the “cute” vibe. Uchis mentions “ice cream” throughout the song, a popular “Cute Food” Kinsella mentions in the article. Moreover, her ethereal melody and soft vocals perfectly fit the features of Japanese pop that we observed while not identifying as a Japanese pop song. It felt right to end with Seiko Matsuda, as Kinsella mentions her as the model of “Cute Idols” during the 1980s.
Were there ethical concerns or debates that came up while creating this playlist?
While creating the playlist, no ethical concerns or debates came up within our group. While creating the playlist, our main goal was to reflect the aspects of Japanese culture regarding “cuteness,” which was the primary topic of the reading. In our first attempt of creating the playlist, we felt like we had achieved that goal, however upon closer inspection, we realized that most songs were composed by men. In order to better align our playlist with the contents of the reading we decided to swap out some songs with those of female artists, as the concept of “femininity” was heavily linked with “cuteness” in the reading.