Critics argue that this can foster excessive consumerism and materialism, as individuals feel compelled to collect or purchase kawaii-themed items. The kawaii aesthetic is closely tied to consumer culture, with numerous merchandise and products marketed around it. This can be seen as regressive and detracting from personal growth and maturity. Criticisms Infantilization Ĭritics argue that the kawaii aesthetic promotes infantilization and encourages adults to embrace childlike behaviors and interests. Its followers would collect things that appealed to their sense of cuteness and mix them, expressing their individuality, and this is would evolve into what is referred to as Harajuku or kawaii fashion nowadays. The designer did not hesitate spreading the new meaning of "kawaii" as "by women for women" which is precisely why the brand has been considered a leader of spreading kawaii culture ever since. Popular with those girls that idolized its style were brands that gave off a fairytale-like feel, such as Pink House by designer Isao Kaneko. The fans of the magazine dolled themself up in ribbons and frills, lace, floral prints, and other girly styles. In 1982, the magazine "Olive" (オリーブ) was launched by Heibon Publishing (now Magazine House) and gave birth to the first wave of "kawaii revolution" (かわいい革命) as well as "otome" culture. Previously, they mostly came with posters and stickers of popular boy groups, similar to western girl's magazines, but in 1975 this changed to "kawaii" stationary goods with characters from the mangas printed on them. Another change of that time was among girl's manga magazines. Beyond that, "non-standard girlish script" (変体少女文字) was introduced as the typeface in 1974, and this overly cute writing style became so popular among high school girls, teachers started to have issues reading their homework. During that time, the company Sanrio gave birth to Hello Kitty, which soon would become one of the most iconic "kawaii" characters in history. The Japanese word "kawaii", which previously was just an adjective, has come to have symbolic value. In the 70s, the number of people who use the term "kawaii" exploded, resulting in the birth of kawaii culture. Later on, the meaning of "kawaii" changed once again when women started to use it to describe everything that is just like them: cute.
However, before the term became used the way it is now, it was mainly used by men to objectify women, and during the 60s, it was very common to be catcalled "Kawaiko-chan" (かわい子ちゃん), which is similar to the English "cutie". Later on, those words were replaced by "kawaii" and started to take on a positive strength, instead of being seen as a weakness. Different to the nowadays "kawaii", they were associated with a negative image, referring to something "so pitiable one can't stand it". In ancient Japanese, the words “kawayushi” (かはゆし) and “kaohayushi” (かほはゆし) were used.
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