Abstract
The dominant discourses around Lolita frame her as either an empowered seductress or a passive victim, but neither discourse delves into what it means to be Lolita, what it is like to embody the construct. Using a critical lens and layered autoethnographic account, I invite readers to experience and reflect on what it means to live Lolita. I argue that as an avatar for the present construction of femininity, Lolita operates as a tool of symbolic violence. By expressing the consequences of living Lolita and connecting my narrative to the broader social construction of gender, I hope to challenge the discursive constraint felt by subjects of abuse and reveal that the unremitting inculcation of femininity (through constructs like Lolita) blocks natural growth and development and constitutes a form of cultural abuse.
Recommended Citation
Murphy-Keith, Rebecca
(2013)
"Living and Leaving Lolita: An Autoethnography of Identification and Transcendence,"
Kaleidoscope: A Graduate Journal of Qualitative Communication Research: Vol. 12, Article 7.
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/kaleidoscope/vol12/iss1/7