Saturday, December 11, 2010

Hello there

My art herstory professor mentioned to a friend and I (we are both feminists, Hello Kitty enthusiasts, and devoted students of this professor) that Hello Kitty doesn't have a mouth. "Think about that," she said, "it's very interesting."



She was suggesting, I suppose, that Hello Kitty (as a very aggressively girly character) embodies the whole silenced, "be seen and not heard" aspect of traditional femininity.
Rather than choosing between her love of Hello Kitty and her hatred of oppressive patriarchal stereotypes, this friend "fixed" Hello Kitty.


Because really, what's cuter than feminism?
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3 comments:

  1. EvaDecember 11, 2010 at 10:10 PM

    Or rather, what is LESS cute?!!! (in a positive way) I love this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. laraDecember 21, 2010 at 6:20 PM

    Why is H.K. all perplexed once she gets a mouth? Think about .

    ReplyDelete
  3. AudreyFebruary 16, 2011 at 5:43 PM

    When I was touring colleges, I sat in on a class that was focused on Japanese pop culture, and the topic of the day was Hello Kitty. Apparently she was created right after the war as a symbol of Japan being silenced by the bombs.

    ReplyDelete

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