How gothic lolita fashion subverts and supports the male gaze

[@randobroccoliboi1575]

this is the first video of yours to have appeared in my feed, hi! growing up afab (i'm transmasc), i struggled with framing my outfits from the male gaze. a lot of the pressure for me personally was from being taught how to dress modestly so as not to be looked at or bothered by men. i feel that i got into lolita fashion without understanding the feminist roots, but i understood that i felt "invisible" (in a comforting way) because i knew everyone was looking at my outfit and not my person. thanks for posting this, it's rattling some thoughts around in my head.

[@teasandqueues]

I'm glad it resonated with you and in some small way can help you find clothing you enjoy.

[@lissilissa]

honestly this popped up in my recommendeds and I have to say, I'm very glad I clicked! I used to have a very keen interest in lolita fashion - which bled more into harajuku-lolita (probably not the right term but I'm sure you catch on) with time, due to my frustration with deeming myself not fit for the fashion, and thus wishing to subvert expectations that came hand-in-hand with the male gaze. Of course, I was young and very impressionable, and had the idea of dressing for men ingrained into my psyche since I was very very young - when I saw sizings for lolita dresses, modelling photos, etc - I felt inadequate for the style; like men would laugh at me, and thus moved on. Now becoming an adult I've noticed that fashion is less about how the world views you and more about how /you/ wish to look - an extension of yourself and your passions. While I cannot say I am 100% always avoiding standards and expectations (and as you very aptly put, sometimes avoiding the gaze and doing everything in opposition to it is STILL playing into the target audience's standards), I can say that I, and many other new adults in the world, have learned to embrace fashion in self-supporting and loving ways, rather than catering ways. It's a very freeing feeling, and even conquering a fear of very LITERAL gazes can be so damned liberating from the shackles of beauty standards. I honestly am absolutely rambling here, but ultimately I'd like to say this is a wonderful video and I appreciate and admire a lot of your talking points. A lot of them were eye-opening! I even shared a few with a friend while watching! ♥

[@teasandqueues]

I'm so glad my points made sense. Here's to dressing for oneself.

[@yumeironeko]

Thank you for this interesting video and for giving us the perspective of your research sources! I think your points came across clearly and I appreciate how you took time to set up exactly what you meant with examples. There is so much to engage with here and I have so many thoughts. Sorry for the incoming wall of text. I clicked for lolita and was very pleasantly surprised to find art history content as well. I studied art history for a few semesters in college and remember that Artemisia Gentileschi painting of Susanna (and I think you said her name correctly). But I never heard about that research revealing the earlier draft of the scene. I'm so glad I found this video because I learned something so interesting! I was familiar with the violence and horror aspects of Artemisia's painting depicting Judith slaying Holofernes but I didn't make the association between the themes of the two painting so strongly until seeing that earlier version of the Susanna painting. The painting of Judith seems like it's in conversation with the Susanna painting. Judith is exacting just retribution on men who prey on women, kind of taking revenge for what happens to so many in Susanna-like situations. I find it absolutely unsurprising that the Susanna story was so popular a subject because it gave European artists living during times of more strict and prudish religious, and thus cultural/societal, mores an excuse to depict the nude female form within the morally justifiable context of edifying religious art. Susanna's is a compromising scene (and obviously some people get turned on by uneven power dynamics), so I guess this story in particular could give some types of men an excuse to view their favorite nonconsensual activities and appreciate it under the guise of "art" (i.e. not engaging with the sympathetic female perspective that Artemisia was portraying but simply viewing the work voyeuristically). Or if the patron wasn't into noncon and just wanted to use the painting as a justifiable way to view a female nude for pleasure (regardless of the story being portrayed), it makes sense to tone down the horror elements lol. I know that some artists also portrayed scenes from classical Greek and Roman stories and histories. But it seems from the sheer volume of religious-themed works during the years in which Catholic and later other Christian religious denominations held moral, and in some cases political, power that Biblical stories would not be exempt from the (overwhelmingly male) artistic ransacking of history and myth to find all of the potentially titillating scenes and subjects for the delectation of the (mostly male) patrons. Artemisia interjects such a unique voice and female perspective into this dialogue that had so long been dominated by the male gaze, and its so refreshing to see her works discussed. Also, I really related to the interview that model(?) gave talking about not perceiving oneself as one is but always seeing oneself as others do, thus always performing one's own identity (looks, expressions, behaviors, etc.) conforming to the standards of others and for the benefit of others. I wish people, women especially, could look in mirrors or phone cameras and assess themselves without fear that they don't measure up to some arbitrary standard of beauty/aesthetics that society (male and female) perpetuates. Society perpetuates the narcissism she mentioned. Excellent point about dressing for men, whether you dress to catch or to evade the male gaze. I guess it is inherently difficult not to dress for men (or equally for women) as you have to go out into society and be perceived by other people of all sexes. That's part of why I'm drawn to gender nonconforming looks and attitudes that basically say screw the traditional ideas of what a man or woman (let alone someone who doesn't identify as either) should dress and act. People should be allowed to be and to be perceived as themselves first and not primarily categorized as simply man or woman according to some arbitrary notion of what those identities are or should or have to be. But it's inevitable that everyone is going to be perceived by others according to that other person's subjective and biased interpretation, which is why I find dressing for others or society at large so annoying in the first place. You can't stop others from judging and forming opinions about you no matter how you dress or present yourself, so you might as well just do what feels good for you and try as best as possible not to mind others and their unavoidable opinions. Good point about idols being posed to appeal to a male gaze. Female idol groups are primarily marketed at male fans (and vice versa for male idol groups). You can include Kpop and other pop idol groups in this as well. They seem to be marketed as the embodiments of the perfect idealized romantic partner or crush for lonely or thirsty fans. Obviously not all fans engage with idol culture this way, but some become obsessed with their favorite idols and are thus induced to pay the companies marketing the idols lots of money for merchandise, concerts, and brief in-person interactions (signings, etc.). These extreme fans treat the idols as more and less than human. They obsess over them (some become obsessed with them) while simultaneously not allowing the idols to exist as their real, authentic selves in the fan's minds. The fans perceive them only as their idol persona and, in many cases, aren't interested in seeing them or acknowledging that they exist as real people separate from the persona. This is where reality TV style interactions (idols having to perform their idol identity while appearing to be authentically behind the scenes) make things more difficult and blur the lines between identities. If an idol is forced to always be in the public eye (they may not be performing on stage but instead going live on Instagram as part of their job) they have to bury their original or authentic personality and be consumed by the cultivated idol personality or risk alienating fans who don't want to see them as their non-idol selves. When taken to the extreme idol culture seems really unhealthy for all involved. Thank you for this wonderful perspective in conversation with voices from the past. And keep up the interesting videos (if you want and are able to). P.S. The KZbin algorithm came through, as it recommended this vid to me (due to viewing lolita content), who had previously not been exposed to your content. Now I'm subbed!

[@teasandqueues]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, and your comment is so well composed. Hopefully I have more clever video essay style videos in me.

[@yumeironeko]

@@teasandqueues Thank you for reading it! I had a lot of thoughts lol. Whatever direction your creativity takes you, I'm sure your videos (or other endeavors) will be interesting. ❤

[@rckstvrr.]

THIS IS SO UNRELATED BUT YOU'RE SO PRETTY / CUTE :( i luv lolita fashion sm

[@teasandqueues]

Thank you 💕

[@A_Strawberry]

Ive never thought about this before, wonderful video essay

[@teasandqueues]

Thank you 💖

[@mushmush4980]

nice video and super good analysis but the audio quality is worse than my high school teacher's zoom meet

[@dream_dealer]

the audio in this video essay is insufferable

[@dream_dealer]

but great video essay! sorry for starting off my comment on a bad note.

[@teasandqueues]

@@dream_dealer I'm still working on getting better at recording but I'm glad you still liked it.

[@Nick-dx2pt]

Non KZbinrs/Non film people don't know how hard/expensive it is to get good quality cameras, mics and equipment

[@mclovin498]

i doubt she gives a shit, she’s probably just doing these little vlogs mostly for herself, she’s not going to invest all her money into it completely

[@virikn]

Most clothing and adornments, makeup, hairstyles, etc. particularly in fashion, are designed and used to attract. They're also designed to accentuate the feminine or masculine features, demeanor, behaviors of the wearer.

[@itsalwayshalloweenexceptwh5118]

The question then is "who are they designed to attract?". Because what is considered attractive changes over time, especially when it comes to fashion. People now look back to (insert era of fashion here) and depending on the fashion era you might mostly hear how ugly people think the fashion was of that time. Lolita fashion in particular started as counter cultural, it was girls and women (the main demographic; 18~45ish) dressing for themselves according to what they liked without regard for what men and society wanted them to wear. It's hyper feminine without being sexual. And this did have the desired side effect because the majority of men have never thought of lolita fashion as particularly attractive to them. Lolitas these days still dress for themselves, and sometimes for other lolitas as well. If they wanted societal or male approval or attract people they would wear something else.

[@TuberoseKisser]

​@@itsalwayshalloweenexceptwh5118 when you want to look nice, generally it's to look nice for other people and then maybe 10% of it is for personal reasons.

[@itsalwayshalloweenexceptwh5118]

​@TuberoseKisser I think you can only speak for yourself here, since there are a variety of reasons people want to look nice. And what does looking nice even mean in this context? Does it mean nice as in what's considered nice according to societal norms? This is where alternative fashion differs greatly from the mainstream. Since most people of the general public dislike alternative fashion (some are neutral but very few actually like it) we can be sure that people dressed in an alternative fashion aren't dressing that way to look nice to the general public. With lolita fashion in particular "dressing for oneself" was and is one of the core values of the fashion. You have to really like something for yourself if you insist on wearing a style that most people have a dislike for, and then continue to wear it even when other people tell you they don't like it and that you should stop and just be normal. Lolitas are also not wearing the style for other lolitas. Bumping into a lolita is a rare occurrence outside of certain areas in Japan.