What many people may not know is that when the "cute い", now a symbol of consumer culture, first appeared, it was actually a revolt against the mainstream culture and ideal female image in Japan at that time, and it is probably not too much to say that it is a "new woman".

Moreover, this cute い girl image was originally a deviation from the traditional Japanese image, a Japanese aesthetic influenced by the Western aesthetic.

That is to say, it is neither completely European nor Japanese, but the beauty of the West in the eyes of the Japanese, and then use this Western aesthetic processed by the Japanese culture to create the image of the beautiful girl in their minds. That is, the beautiful girls we see today have white skin, big eyes, curly blond or other colors, but very few black hair, large breasts and small waists.

This trend of cutie い and girly girl culture really began to affect Japanese society in the 1970s. Before that, Japanese society's ideal of women was docile, tough and good wives and mothers, just look at Japanese movies in the 1960s and 1970s.

Why is cuteness い and girly girl culture a rebellion against this traditional image of Japanese women?

That's because little girls aren't responsible for their families.

The predecessor of cute い is かわゆし, a word that probably no one uses now, has the meaning of "shy, fragile and small". After becoming lovely い, it is used together with girls to describe girls who grow up. Such a person is not responsible, free and free to do what he wants, and is not condemned by social moral laws. It is an attempt and effort of feminism to break away from the regulations and discipline of Japanese society on gender and pursue self and freedom.

Of course, the development of this girl culture is not smooth sailing. After peaking at the end of the last century, there was also a period of downturn and depression. The reason is that Japanese society has a great worry about the increasingly free girls, who do nothing all day long, chew on the elderly, spend a lot of money on luxury goods, are unwilling to be responsible for marriage and family, and of course, help the social atmosphere that makes the government headache. The Japanese media began to severely criticize the lovely い culture, thinking that Japan will not be a country if it goes on like this. Kind of like the anxiety we have about mothering culture right now.

However, in the magical country of Japan, the story has turned on its head.

Adorable い Far from disappearing, culture has become an important cultural export of Japan.

The main reason lies in the Japanese government's acceptance and use of cute い elements, which began to be widely used on the mascots of government agencies.

And just like that, cuteness い not only didn't disappear, it became a Japanese cultural export. Today, cuteness い is an integral part of Japanese culture and has become, as Gao puts it, "etiquette, standard and routine" in Japan.

The original meaning of "rebelling against the traditional image of women" has gradually disappeared.

But once it is integrated into the mainstream, it means that there will be new non-mainstream to meet the new resistance and demands of the new generation of young people. For example, today, more and more young people express their antipathy to the cute い culture, hoping to create new cultural images to break through the stereotype of cute い, such as the nerd culture, herbivore culture, zero-consumption culture and so on.

But when these cultures become mainstream, they will probably be resisted by other non-mainstream.