War on cute.

So I was talking to some friends the other day about this, and it seems like in many western countries around the world most things that are cute tend to be frowned upon or even met with hostility, at least when applied to anyone that isn't a child. I'm main talking about how people(mainly women) present themselves in public settings with hair/fashion and to an extent accessories, but there are other sides to this as well such as the hostility many show towards "moe shit" anime for example. Heck, when MLP started to become a thing with older audiences I thought it might have been a sign of change. Seemed like older people might start to actually like cute things, but most of it's fans never moved past MLP. Many took the fandom in very disturbing directions, and many others were only fans ironically to start with. I was also kinda hoping to see more cute things marketed at older audiences rather than all things "cute" being treated as exclusively something for kids, but that also never really happened. As far as one's appearance goes I'm sure many of you who watch anime or seen asian media have noticed that it's not uncommon for women to dress and even act in ways that people might consider childish yet it's treated as not really a big deal for them. Head to western countries however and you almost never see women with bows/ribbon in their hair, styles like twintales are none existent, and outfits that are cute rather than skimpy/trashy or at best very bland are rare. Instead (around here at least) you see everyone with the same 2-3 hairstyles, and almost like it's a uniform wearing tank tops with skinny jeans or cut offs and flipflops or sneakers, and don't even get me started on men's fashion... One guy I spoke with tells that their girlfriend apparently enjoyed these sort of cute things but would get harassed a lot about it by random people who thought it was strange and weird so eventually they hacked off their hair and stopped wearing anything cute again. The general consensus among the group was that women tend to be very jealous and bitter, and act aggressively towards any other women they deem more attractive than themselves which is how things have we've gotten to where they are now. How do you guys feel about this and do you think cultures outside of japan will ever accept cuteness?

Sounds like it's kind of bland where you live. Sure, plenty of trashy men/women here, but there's a huge variety of everything in between too. Cute is different from sexy and quite a few people think tight or revealing clothing is just that, cute. I'm in the "more is less" category. What I mean is, cute/sexy isn't always determined by how much skin you can show. You start off with cute by referencing things that generally speaking, were made for kids (mlp, for instance). But, what of people who find things in nature cute? I run into them all the time and they aren't shunned. I think the issue here is the association between liking things geared towards a younger audience and those who aren't part of the main audience that kind of "creepily" try to be part of it. Cute is subjective, at either rate. Mostly I think it has to do with being looked down upon because "cute" things are usually considered childish, at least in the context that you started off with. As for how japan is, I wouldn't know, I've never lived there and won't assume based on just the media that I consume.

Yassshat, I need to live where you do, because girls around where I live are exactly like what Neetone described, minus the trashy ones. Guess that's what I get for living in the borderline country though. I'm convinced that the gene pool around here is actually quite shallow, considering everyone kinda looks the same. That includes the guys too. Anyways, yes, I'm kinda (As usual) in agreement with both of you. I adore a lot of japanese fashions, including or perhaps especially lolita fashion, and wish I could see more of it. But lets face it, if all the girls in american society started trying to be kawaii, wearing skirts, twin tails, and making exaggerated emotive gestures, what do you think would actually happen? While I absolutely hate when people try to adhere other cultures outside of their own to their own ethnocentric standards, the fact is, I think women here are just sick of being sexualized to the extent that they are. There is plenty of unnecessary slut shaming going around, but there are also actual cases of sexual harassment going around on a frequent basis. Honestly, I think the solution to that would be to teach younger guys what women are actually attracted to, so both parties get what they want instead of trying to shame one gender in particular for behaving in a way that evolution has lead them to behave when they feel sexually inadequate. But I digress. My point is we just have some hurdles to get over first before we can even think about kawaii-fying the country. Also, that's not what all Japanese girls are like either. We have a reputation for our women behaving a certain way over here, and I think a few of my Japanese friends would be shocked if they met half of my more reserved female friends.

I wear pigtails a lot and Lolita fashion and I get mostly positive reactions from people. People come up to me all the time and say they like my clothes and tell me I look like a doll but there are some who think I must be some kind of pervert or mentally deranged to be wearing anything so modest or frilly by choice.

What happens when you act/dress kawaii in western countries: https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Venusangelic https://www.youtube.com/user/VenusAngelic/videos She was on My Strange Addiction a few years back and other stuff. Americans thought it was creepy and figured that dressing/acting that way was pure pedo bait. Since then she just gets lots of hate.

I think American's especially (but also other countries) psychology has been so corrupted by the non-stop pedo witch hunt of the last 25 years that any overly cute behavior is seen in negative light. Conversely the extreme societal forbidden view has likely made such tendencies even more sexually exciting. As well as corrupting the youth who now flaunt themselves being naughty online which is now a much bigger problem than adults forcing kids. Essentially, we just don't deal with the situation well.

Japan has similar issues. But it's more culturally accepted and the causes are a bit different. I think it's more related to the lack of healthy relationships. Marriage is more often out of convenience and often sexless. This has created a rift between sex and relationships where older guys tend to turn to younger girls for emotional or sexual support they don't get from marriage or a real relationship as most don't have time for such because of how much time they have to work to pay for the cost of living. So for decades now and reinforced by anime culture, schoolgirls have become the de facto objects of lust. At least that's my understanding of the cultural situation. Anyone who's lived there could provide more information.