/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>8495580
The film version directed by Adrian Lyne hit Japan in 1998 and was very popular. Dolores (Lolita) was played by 15 year old Dominique Swain and her character was played in a very cute, naively coquettish kind of way. Dare I say any allegorical elements (consumerism, excess, old Europe yadda yadda) were completely lost on the audience (not helped by language barriers and the film's portrayal of the story in general) and instead it may have hit pop culture as a portrayal of innocence - sweetly romantic if slightly 'forbidden'. This interpretation isn't unique to Japan of course, for better or worse the lolita novel and films have been romanticised right across the globe.

Rather than a 12 year old child as portrayed in the book, lolita in the film looks her 15 years and instead probably comes across as 'moe' or some shit and thus perhaps not as uncomfortable or disturbing to viewers as intended in the novel.

Anyway, although it's not a direct link I think it is probably more than a coincidence; somewhere along the line lolita was picked up to mean 'young cute girl'. Whilst I gather the term 'lolita' was used to describe the emerging fashion in the mid 90s before the movie came out, I think it may have, amongst other things, help the term to 'stick'. As far as I understand it, there weren't many mentions of 'lolita fashion' at all until 1998 onwards. However 'lolicon' was used to describe super feminine and cute shoujo type characters in the 80s without much stigma attached to it.