How to be Kawaii in the 21st century?

Kawaii, a word that suddenly arose all over the internet. When Googling the term, we are dragged into a seemingly childish world of bright overwhelming colors, big eyes and an overall sense of cuteness. And now, we don’t only have to simply perceive this world, we can easily emerge ourselves into it, or even take part in it. And so, this fluffy world of Kawaii goes beyond the online networks the internet. It becomes real to us in ways we have never seen before.

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How to be Kawaii?

Influencers on platforms like Instagram and YouTube provide us with many guidelines that tell us exactly what to look like and how to behave to fit into a community of one’s choice. With images and ‘how to’-video’s, they teach us about the rules we must adhere to create a certain identity. One could say that, since the rise of those socio-technological platforms, it has never been this easy to master the ‘rules’ of belonging.

Yet, that a platform like YouTube creates a space to construct (new) identity discourses, doesn’t mean that the things those influencers tell, are in any sense appropriate, or ‘right’ (Blommaert & Varis, 2015). They state thoe rules in the way they think is right. This can lead to certain ideas, concepts, discourses, cultures and so on, being taken out of context, or so to say, discourse and images are “decontextualized and recontextualized” (Blommaert, 2005. p76). The power those influencers have on the ways we perceive and talk about things seems to be more imposing and all-changing than we might have ever thought.

For example, when Manda31409 told me how to ‘channel’ my inner kawaii-ness, I was a bit surprised. While watching her YouTube video titled How To Be Kawaii In 10 Easy Steps, I wasn’t surprised for the fact that she explained me ‘how to’ get bright colorful lips and long eyelashes, or how I could look very cute and stunning by wearing pastel-colored dresses and wigs. No, I was surprised about the mere fact that she introduced this style as being ‘Kawaii’, as an identity, or ‘Japanese fashion’, and that she claimed to teach me the rules of this very ‘style’ via this video. I was especially fascinated when I found out that Manda31409 is a 26-year-old girl that lives in Washington, America.

From that moment on, I started wondering: how did that Japanese term Kawaii (literally translated as ‘cute’) end up in her video’s? And, what does this Japanese word mean when taken out of its original context, appropriated as means of identity, by American influential girls like her? Can Manda31409 tell me the ‘right’ or ‘true’ rules of being Kawaii?

In this paper, I will look at this new Kawaii-discourse from two different perspectives. One that considers a theory back from the 80’s called Orientalism, by Edward Said. Within this concept, I will analyze how, and if, in such YouTube video’s Japan’s ‘Kawaii’ is being overly romanticized, how Japan is seen as an exotic ‘other’ culture, and elaborate in which way this theory was altered throughout the mindset of the 21st century. Next to that, I will focus on how platforms like YouTube create space for new identity-discourses and communities online. And, how users like Manda31409 influence the way in which we regard and perceive concepts like Kawaii outside of Japan, especially in Western countries like Europe and America.

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What is Kawaii?               

First of all, it is important to explain what Kawaii means and where the term comes from, however, the exact meaning of the word, especially how it is used in Western discourses, is hard to specify. That is why I will explain the definition and history of Kawaii as a word, and as a concept, on the basis of Borggreen’s paper: 'Cute and Cool in Contemporary Japanese Visual Arts' (2011). Adding to that, I will elaborate on the (Westernized) fashion-discourse of the Japanese style Lolita, which is highly influenced by the aesthetics of Kawaii.

Gunhild Borggreen (2011) explains that Kawaii is a Japanese word that literally translates into something that is sweet, cute, innocent, pure, gentle and vulnerable. It is also associated with more negative definitions like pathetic, poor or pitiable (Borggreen, 2011). In a global context, however, the term has slightly other meaning.

As a concept, it has come to “signify a specific ‘Japanese’ kind of cute style found in various aspects of popular culture, such as in fashion, design, manga, anime, computer games, gadgets, and many other domains.” (Borggreen, 2011. p41). Within the fashion-discourses Kawaii seems to have some overlap with the so-called Lolita or Harajuku fashion. These terms both refer to a child-like and cute colorful appearance, characterized by large eyes, a small heart-shaped mouth, fluffy skirts with lace, high knee socks, pastel-colored hair and a lot of Kawaii accessories. 

 

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Sociopolitical aspects of Kawaii

In his paper, Borggreen argues that the concept of Kawaii cannot be ignored as something empty or meaningless as we view it in Western discourses nowadays. Borggreen (2011) explains that within Japanese culture, Kawaii as dressing up in cute and colourfull school-girl outfits, is connected to historical ideas of the shojo, or ‘girls’ culture originating from early 20th-century manga-comics. This manga, or Japanese comics, had a huge influence on the Kawaii-subcultures in the 1960s in Japan.

“These youth styles are usually not connected to radical politics, but rather are self-expressions of resistance and rebellion”

Since the 1960’s Kawaii has played parts in the lives of many high-school girls in Japan that wanted to distance themselves from mainstream society and fight against authority by behaving childlike and angry. As a resistance, they created this image of the cute and sweet, but at the same time, rebellious girls. They started to read manga comics and refused to read the academic literature that was imposed by the schools. But as Laura Miller points out “these youth styles are usually not connected to radical politics, but rather are self-expressions of resistance and rebellion” (Miller, 2006. p27).

Due to its popularity, the concept of Kawaii spread vastly throughout Japan. It was so influential even, that in Japan’s economic crisis in 1990, Kawaii was used as a form of soft power to spread Japan’s image of modernity over the world.

This connotation to the economic crisis, however, wasn’t working out very positively either. At the same time, such girls acting this rebellious ‘Kawaii’ culture, were blamed by Japanese media for creating the economic crisis and misfortunes that Japan had suffered in the 1990s. Consequently, Kawaii influences on fashion and subcultures was seen as a dangerous female conspiracy against the patriarchal society. This combination of national and global popularity, and the history of the girls who used the concept as rebellion, still characterizes the elements of Kawaii visible in Japan’s cultures today (Borggreen, 2011).

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Kawaii in Lolita-fashion

Extensive research done about Kawaii as a specific identity discourse or style is hard to find, or either not even done yet. To understand Kawaii used as a fashion- and/or identity-discourse, it is possible to view it from its connections with the Lolita-fashion subculture mentioned above. Lolita-fashion has many different forms and sub-groups but is signified by dressing up in an overly feminine and extravagant way, and, as Masafumi Monde (2013) states, it's 'infantilized’ and ‘eroticized’ aspects.

 

Kawaii, in this sense, is an element that is part of Lolita fashion, as its archetypal quality in fashion is when something appears childlike and cute (Monde, 2013). This ‘infantilized’ and ‘sexualized’ character surrounding the Lolita fashion subculture, is, however, only how it is perceived in European and American, or Western cultures. Only the westernized version of Lolita holds ideas of objectifying and infantilizing of women, at least how it is seen from a mainstream perspective in those Western cultures (Monde, 2013).

Monden argues that Lolita is perceived like this because ‘hyperbolic’ girlishness and over-the-top dressing up like the Lolita-styles, is not very popular in contemporary Western societies. European and American discourses tend to have cultural preconceptions of ‘cute’ being girlish or infantile. The style is somewhat passive and unfavorable because it is associated with sexuality and therefore fetishizes the child-like and cuteness of the Kawaii aesthetics.

This while, in Japan itself, Lolita-fashion is not sexualized or infantilized because as Monden argues, Kawaii is not only something women or children can ‘be’. Japanese people perceive notions of cuteness very different, “for they are culturally allowed to appreciate the concept longer into adulthood than for example Americans.” (Monden, 2013. p174). Consequently, styles like Lolita are more eager to flourish in Japan, while in Western countries it's style perceived as quite unfavorable. For that, as Monden’s research indicates, members of the Lolita community in European and American cultures, tend to see Japanese discourses as the only spaces that create the freedom to dress in a Kawaii-style like Lolita in an everyday context (Monden, 2013).

This may be the reason why Kawaii itself is specially mentioned Manda’s video’s, to focus on the style’s cute aspects instead of the sexualized and eroticized connotations it creates within the Western discourses of the Lolita-style. In Manda’s video, we see that Kawaii, as a broad term as it is used in Japan, is selected on its specific means in a specific form, as an identity and fashion-style. At the same time, this means that the Japanese 'Kawaii' is taken out of its ‘authentic’ context. Consequently, the specific socio-political aspects got lost, as Borggreen states: “the depths of critical encounters and softening the sharpness of subversive resistance, the social critique inherent in Kawaii culture thus becomes silenced.” (Borggreen, 2011. p59).

It is to say that, in Manda’s video’s, Kawaii is being romanticized, and used to describe the cute style as something as ‘dare to be yourself’ or like Manda says: “Being Kawaii is all about being happy and just living your life to its fullest without caring what other people think about what you’re wearing” (Manda, min. 4:18). This romanticizing of ideas and concepts is a typical characteristic of the theory mentioned in the introduction: Orientalism.

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Orientalism: representing the Orient

In 1978 Edward Said introduced the concept Orientalism to understand how the ‘other’ or ‘Orient’ is represented in the West. With, ‘West’ in this sense he refers to Northern-European and American countries. Within that model, we see that the ‘other’ or ‘exotic’ culture is often romanticized and fantasized by those Western cultures (Wagenaar, 2016). Japan is one of these ‘other’ cultures that is repeatedly overly romanticized in the Western discourses. Especially during colonial times, it was presented as very exotic, with a focus on its aesthetic elegant features. 

"the stereotypical framework in which Japan is understood as aesthetic yet menacing conceals a mechanism where the West dominates Japan and decides the identity of the country"

Wester Wagenaar (2016) argues that “the stereotypical framework in which Japan is understood as aesthetic yet menacing conceals a mechanism where the West dominates Japan and decides the identity of the country.” (Wagenaar, 2016. p48). (Wagenaar, 2016). It where Western scholars and observers, from particularly Western-European countries, who decided what Japan looked like, they decided what was beautiful about Japan and what was not. Aside from other non-Western cultures, studies about Japan, especially in the past, tended to focus on positive; characteristics of their culture, of their ‘otherness’. For instance, when thinking about traditional Japan, images from geisha’s, white blossoms, ninja’s and kimono’s may at first come to the mind. Nowadays, scholars consider these associations with Japan to be typical characteristics of ‘traditional Orientalism’ (Wagenaar, 2016).

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Techno (Wacky) Orientalism

Since the 1990s Japan’s culture is no longer only portrayed in that traditional way.  Due to the rise of Japanese economic power, Japan became synonymous with the technologies of the future. Its culture was suddenly also associated with terms like robots, artificial intelligence, networks, and virtual reality. This new version of Orientalism is called ‘Techno-Orientalism’.

Within this new discourse, Japan’s technological success has been associated with an exotic and dystopian futuristic Japanese identity and culture. However, this Techno-Orientalism is not only positively associated with Japan, but it also focusses on the dehumanized and soulless side of its technological society (Wagenaar, 2016).

Traditional orientalism and techno-orientalism aren’t the only types of orientalism that are associated with Japanese culture. In his paper, Wacky Japan: A new face of orientalism, Wester Wagenaar (2016) introduces a new kind of Orientalism, of which he states it to be exemplary of this era: Wacky Orientalism.

Wagenaar (2016) introduces this ‘improved’ Orientalism-framework to understand the fact that since the 2000’s the West increasingly judges Japan and its people as weird. Alike with Techno-Orientalism, Wacky-Orientalism also discusses how both Japan is negatively and positively judged by the West. The negative view of the ‘weird’ Japan, is seen in the way it is presented in memes and video’s titled “WTF Japan” or as “because Japan”.

Within this model, we also see how this new image of Japan is portrayed as overly positive. And this is, where we go back to Manda’s video.

Here we can see that Manda portrays kawaii and therefore also Japan, as overly cute, crazy and wacky. With lots of accessories, colors, and enthusiasm she extremely idealizes and fantasizes Japan’s culture and thus, it’s identity. And as Wagenaar argues: “Japan does not possess a voice in the creation of this narrative imposed by the West, nor can it really change it.” (Wagenaar, 2016. p51). (Wagenaar, 2016).

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Kawaii as identity discourse

Manda isn’t the first who appropriated and romanticized kawaii. On YouTube there are about hundreds, may it be thousands, of video’s that explain, what ‘being Kawaii’ means. Each video in their own way, with their own rules. There seems to be a huge YouTube community administered by users from Western countries like England and the United States, that created their own norms and values around this certain Westernized Kawaii discourse.

Such (online) communities, or ‘icro-hegemonies’, often only make up a small part of someone’s life. One can easily choose to belong to or leave at any moment. However, if one wants to belong to such a group, one has to obtain the right knowledge about the features that make the identity recognizable. Those icro-hegemonies often have leaders that decide what is and what is not appropriate within a certain identity-discourse (Blommaert & Varis, 2015). And it seems that guidelines put up by those ‘leaders’ online are taken for granted by many of their followers.

As a YouTuber with at least 31,790,904 views, we can consider Manda as one of those leaders of the ‘Western’ Kawaii-community. She is, or least claims to be, an ‘instructor’ of that specific identity. In her ‘how to’ video Manda31409 enthusiastically gives her viewers tips and tricks for what to wear and how to dress like to look cute and Kawaii. She explains what kind of hair accessories to buy, what perfume you should wear and which colors fit the best to look cute and kawaii.

Manda31409 is an ‘identity-constructor’ that tells us what elements are enough to be seen as a member, she provides the viewer with the rules of belonging, enoughness of being Kawaii. Those tips and tricks together help people to construct a visible identity, and show to which group or identity category one belongs, or wants to belong to. Or, so to say, those elements, or features, indicate a matter of ‘dosing’ every accessory, every color, every small detail that adds to the identity-construction. If one adds too much or too less of those details one can be seen as ‘not belonging’ to a community. With this, Manda defines what is authentic, what is enough as an accent and what is not (Blommaert & Varis, 2015).

To identify as kawaii is to wish to be recognizable as someone who knows the rules, who has the knowledge. And, as we can see in the comment-section presented above, the members of Manda31409’s specific community are eager to follow. Manda is almost idolized and, therefore ‘approved’ as a leader of their micro-hegemony that defines their own form of ‘Kawaii’.

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Criticism

However, because Kawaii, as a word, is used and appropriated, and placed within a totally different context, its meanings also changed. As the term is “decontextualized and recontextualized” the shape of the signs is modified, and with it, it's essence. So, it is more about what those semiotics do in a society and cultural social context, it is language in 'action' (Blommaert, 2005).

This implies that for some, the way Manda uses Kawaii is used or ‘done’ in the ‘wrong’ way. It adds to the idea that one needs to have just ‘enough’ elements to be, or even use the word ‘Kawaii’, it is a serious matter of precision.

Thus, change of context might lead to the 'wrong' interpretation or 'wrong' appropriation of accents (identity-construction) and semiotic means (context). With different understandings of the meaning of Kawaii, as a style and word, one can be the target of criticism from the ones who claim to know the right, or authentic rules and meanings. For some, it might be that Manda uses the word Kawaii in a context with elements that not fit according to its ‘original’ culture, (think about Kin kawaii’s sociopolitical  historical aspects Borggreen referred to), and this thus leads to criticism from the ones who claim to ‘know’.

In the pictures below, we see some critique in the comment-section of Manda31409’s video. These people seem to not agree with her tips and tricks, with her choice to use, and call, this Kawaii.

The people commenting underneath her video call Manda a weeaboo, which refers to the idea that ‘Western’ people try to reenact Japanese styles but fail to do so because they don’t really know ‘their’ culture. By calling Manda a ‘Weeaboo’ those users at the same time claim to know ‘better’ and put theselves above her, in their eyes she failed as an identity-constructor. They differentiate themselves from her community.

They claim that how she uses Kawaii, is not ‘really’ Japanese, it is not authentic. Interesting, because this ‘weeaboo-ness’, which originates from non-academic forums on the internet, seems overlap with the concept Orientalism I presented earlier in this paper. It’s about ‘the Westerners’ who create this overly romanticized image of Japan, one that seems to lack the complexity and diversity of its actual culture. But then, one might ask, who decides how the term is and should be used in those Western discourses? 

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A globalized Kawaii in a globalized world?

Manda31409’s case is a perfect example of how socio-technological platforms like YouTube have a major influence on (online) discourses, meaning and identity construction. The guidelines put up by those communities online are taken for granted by many of their followers. Hence, those 'leaders' have a huge influence on a broad audience that is eager to belong. As we saw, this also means that words, styles, norms, and values can be taken out of context and given a whole different meaning. And this is exactly what happened with ‘Kawaii’.

Manda31409 embraces that ‘wacky-ness’ or ‘weirdness’ of Japan, but portrays both the word as Japan’s culture, as an identity-category within a ‘how to’-discourse of ‘dare to be yourself’ and ‘not caring about what other people think’. Kawaii, a Japanese word, which in Japan has a totally different value, is now culturally appropriated and turned into a eemingly superficial identity discourse. By that, Manda symbolizes the modern mechanisms of Orientalism. One wherein the West still seems to dominate Japan and decides its identity.

It is, however, noticeable how Kawaii isn’t implied in those Westernized Orientalist discourses on a broad spectrum of ‘things’ like it is in Japan. Kawaii in Western discourses (on YouTube in Manda’s case) is borrowed in the context of fashion and identity styles. A discourse in which it is assumably needed, at a specific moment where in Europe, there wasn’t really a word for this particular Japanese ‘cuteness’. It is a huge possibility that influencers like Manda wanted to create something similar to Japanese, to only create this free space that Japanese discourses allow about cuteness and child-like behavior.

In that sense, Kawaii came at the right moment. Its implementation as a term in fashion discourses and subcultures, allowed the sexual association with terms like Lolita to be somewhat less present in Westernized Kawaii-subcultures. So, there is to argue that from a Japanese perspective, this de-contextualization, or, appropriation of the term failed, but within the discourses in those Western micro-communities, it appears to fit just in place. As a broad term, it had the desired function, to go for a specific identity construction and style. A style that now has a literal name in Western countries, and therefore creates a community that accepts this ‘cuteness’ after all.

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References:

Blommaert, J. & Varis, P. (2015). Enoughness, accent and light communities: Essays on contemporary identities. Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies nr. 139. p. 4-30

Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse, key topics in sociolinguistics. Cambridge: University Press

Borggreen, G. (2011). Cute and Cool in Contemporary Japanese Visual Arts. Copenhagen: The Journal of Asian Studies

Miller, L. (2006). Beauty Up. Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics.Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 27

Monde, M. (2013). The "Nationality" of Lolita Fashion. In, Asia through Art and Anthropology: Cultural Translation Across Borders. Bloomsbury; UK, London

Wagenaar, W. (2016). Wacky Japan: A new face of orientalism. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies

 

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