From Chanpai's tumblr :
To all the teenage hipsters glorifying a Lolita lifestyle (?) and referring to themselves as Lolitas
Lolita the character is not and was not sexually empowered, awesome, hip, or rad.
She was repeatedly raped by an abductor.
If you think the character is sexy or hot and you want to be like her, you don’t know how to read.
Pick up the fucking book and read it.
Lolita the book is considered a masterpiece because it is one of the earliest examples of a protagonist (not Lolita, by the way, but her rapist) being utterly unlikable and unsympathetic. It is well-written but incredibly disturbing and not for the faint of heart.
Put away the infantile clothing and the lollipops and the false eyelashes and stop calling yourself a Lolita.
*Edited to add* For the record, I’m not referring to the Japanese fashion trend. I think the choice in name is poor and the fashion itself is not something I would… you know, ever wear, but whatever. Plenty of people don’t like what I wear and to each his own. I am referring to teenage girls who call themselves Lolitas because they have their ass hanging out on Facebook.
So. I agree with this viewpoint. But I also just wanted to say that one of the nicknames people have given me is 'Lolita'. And I embrace this.
Because that did happen to me. Dolly especially. She isn't sexually-empowered, or someone to look up to and embraced. She is a completely fucked up person. She is ruined, and broken, and a terrible person because of her experiences.
She doesn't dress like a little girl. She's a 12 year old girl that uses sex and lust to get what she wants, no matter what the cost to her safety or mental well being, because she was raped so many times that she doesn't see it as anything other than a transaction.
I'll pretend that it's sex instead of rape, so that you won't hurt me quite as badly, so I can feel like I have some control.
Don't want to be like that.
Lolita was a little girl in a bad situation who turned to an abuser because she was desperate for some affectionate attention because her mother was neglectful. She ended up getting repeatedly raped and abused. No one should want that. No one should be like that.
But, some of us are.
And when you use it to describe yourself when you're choosing to dress slutty and do slutty things because you find it fun, it takes it away as a label for abuse victims to use, because no one is able to take it seriously.
Lolita is an abuse label, not a fashion trend.
It isn't sexy to be an abuse victim. It isn't sexy to be raped.
There's nothing hot about being a sexualized child.
True, my story is very different to that of Lolita, but the resonance is the same, I guess.
(Just to note, I have nothing against Lolita fashion, and indulge in it occasionally, because I love the old fashion feel of it, but the name is very unfortunate.)
