Kitty Subversion: Turning Cute on its Head

Center for Japanese Studies Seminar Series, "Kitty Subversion: Turning Cute on its Head," by Christine Yano (Professor in Anthropology).

This presentation focuses on some of the subversive uses to which that Japanese icon, Hello Kitty, has been put in its global consumption. These include punk appropriations, gay and lesbian fandom, and pornographic citations. In these subversions, how does "Japan" or "Asia" become a reference point? Who is doing the subverting and to what purposes? How does Sanrio itself subsequently adopt some of these subversions in the interest of marketing to a newly expanded group of potential consumers? (And what is suggested by the fact that even subversion may be commodified?) In an era of post-feminist “girl culture,” the iconicity of an object such as Hello Kitty provides fertile ground for an examination of some of the underlying assumptions, contentions, and ironies surrounding this form of global consumption.

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Free and Open to the Public

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Center for Japanese Studies, Manoa

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Center for Japanese Studies, 956-2665, cjs@hawaii.edu, http://www.hawaii.edu/cjs/index.html

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