Japansk populärkultur bland unga i svensk kontext: Lolitastilen som förhandling om ålder och genus

An increasing interest in Eastern Asian popular culture can be discerned among Swedish youth. When cultural elements are used in new contexts, meanings are partly transformed and reenacted in new ways. This article explores how the Japanese fashion style Lolita is negotiated in a Swedish context. The data are based on observations and interviews at Swedish conventions for Eastern Asian popular culture, and a group interview with five teenagers using Lolita style. For analysis, we use concepts relating to age, gender and gaze. The results show that Lolita style offers possibilities for the young people in our study, female as well as male, to explore a certain form of feminine girlishness. However, this process involves negotiation about age, gender and bodies in public spaces, and by its use of childish femininity, the Lolita style seen through a spectator’s gaze may generate ridicule. Its radicality and provocation seem to lie in the way Lolitas challenge norms about gender, age and expectations about “growing up”.