Commodifying Affection, Authority and Gender in the Everyday Objects of Japan

Abstract

Cute objects are encountered everywhere in Japan: in advertising, company logos, everyday objects and pornography; and in government-sponsored public safety posters, baby faces, smiling children, tiny bunnies and beaming bears are used to inform, warn, advise, admonish and shape opinion. Cuteness communicates power relations and power play, effec tively combining weakness, submissiveness and humility with influence, domination and control. It merges meekness, admiration and attachment with benevolence, tenderness and sympathy. This paper focuses on the gen dered aspect of cute things: how they communicate messages about being the 'ideal' woman. The multivocality of cuteness is revealed by employing Turner's symbolic analysis and this paper discusses the meanings and cul tural values that, embedded in all the varied objects of cuteness, constitute a socionormative commentary about how women should behave, especially vis-a-vis men. Examples are provided to show how cuteness, as a sentiment that has been objectified, commodified and commercialized, affords com municative potency.

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