Hello Kitty is 30!

[senoritafish]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1006/p01s02-woap.html

(Article on Japanese pop culture, including anime and manga...)

I can't believe that overly cute mouthless white blob has been around since I was 12! Although she is kind of cute in the bondage gear.

Comments

[konoichi.livejournal.com]

I'm by most measures a radical feminist. I have two Hello Kitty wallets and a bunch of stationery of both her and Chococat. I just can't understand the accusations of "voicelessness" and such.

Perhaps Hello Kitty was the first, but all Sanrio characters, male and female, are pretty blandly unexpressive.

It's an interesting article. The world will be an interesting place as the cultural hegemony of the West continues to erode.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

I don't have any Hello Kitty stuff myself, but there is a wallpaper on my computer for the benefit of my kids, and my daughter's favorite blankie is bright pink with Hello Kitty angels and hearts on it. My husband likes Badditz Maru (I think that's the name) - the penguin with attitude. But he's kind of into any kind of penguin.

She's just a little bit too cutesy for me, but I really can't see how she fosters "submissiveness and infantilism in women" as the article mentions. I've never seen her depicted that way. She takes whatever personality you want to assign to her. And I know plenty of grown-up, independent women with minds of their own who love to collect all kinds of toys, myself included. I just tend to go more for action figures than fluffy things. I probably could handle this Hello Kitty, (http://www.hottopic.com/store/product.asp?LS=0&ITEM=219333) but yellow makes me look jaundiced, and I'd look ridiculous in a baby tee.

As far as other exports, I used to watch anime as a small child, but as I got older I was actually turned off by it for a long time, because of the cutesy factor. Probably I absorbed a lot of my dad's rants about "Bambi-itis." I've always appreciated other Japanese artwork and culture, and when I started seeing more of that in some anime, that's when I started watching it again. I spent a month on a Japanese fishing boat, which probably isn't representative of their entire culture, but it was submersion in a microcosm of it anyway, one-sided because I didn't speak the language. I wonder what they thought of me?

The world will be an interesting place...
Maybe that's what I like about living where I do. You don't have to go far to experience a lot of different cultures.

totallly

[tenbones.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness Feminism has taken hold in Japan yet...I'm so amazed how approachable Japanese women are ...I was taken back by how well I was treated by a friend's girlfriend...I have yet to hear a Japanese girl say, "hey you have two hands" when one asks someone if they can make dinner...

Re: totallly

[tenbones.livejournal.com]

oh..I'm not being argumentative(maybe a little sarcastic)..just trying to make things less black and white...sure things are bad in American, but its a whole lot worse being a female in Japan than being in America.

The reason Helly Kitty is so popular is because of mass popularity..it isn't because of the item...look at the Von Dutch Hats...or Louis Vuitton bags...If enough "cool" people have certain items, others will too.

[bakayaro-onna.livejournal.com]

I met Susan Napier at a con last year and her book is the one being used as one of the textbooks for the World Lit class.

Thanks for the link. The more I can throw at the research paper, the better.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

Glad to help! If I see anything more I'll throw it at you.

And feel better soon.