Abstract
Japanese girls’ culture is typically characterized by cuteness (kawaii), but this essay explores a different type of Japanese girls’ culture, focusing on what I call girls’ aesthetics. While cute girls sometimes challenge gender norms, their rebellions take place within the heteronormative paradigm where women are ultimately seen in their relationship to men. In contrast, girls’ aesthetics defy heteronormativity, especially the role of motherhood within the paradigm. Their resistance takes a form of erasure of female material bodies in girlie cultural artefacts. This essay traces the development of the aesthetics and explores their traits by discussing contemporary case studies from manga (graphic novels) and installation arts.