Cuteness III: Cuteness and Dark Subject Matter
*TW: mentions of mental illness, self-harm, and other dark subject matter
Introduction
We’ve previously established that cuteness is an aesthetic that is often associated with traits that communicate purity, wholesomeness, vulnerability, innocence, beauty, and generally warm, fuzzy feelings in the last article. Cuteness has also been seen to hold psychological and biological influence over behavior and cognition, and socially has been seen interwoven with gender and expressions of the self.
This article will explore the particular employment of cuteness in dark subject matter. We will briefly discuss how and why these subjects attract or combine with a cute aesthetic and what this means socioculturally.
Cuteness, Mental Illness, and Fashion
Subcultures (cultural groups within larger cultural groups) have long been communities of like-minded individuals who share beliefs and experiences and whose outward aesthetic expressions share characteristic traits to identify each other. In recent years, subcultures have been described as “dying,” with -core aesthetics (such as cottagecore, a visual theme comprised of motifs revolving around nature and the countryside) rising to take their place as the de facto aesthetic communities. Despite this, subcultures are still thriving, with participants still finding community in their practices and traditions of self-expression.
Fashion, along with other forms of expression, has long been used as a tool to communicate self-identity and perspectives to other people. In times where certain topics or outlooks are censored or considered taboo to talk about, fashion and visual forms of expression are potent tools of communication and even rebellion and social reform. One example of this is the way that Japanese youth have resorted to fashion as a way to combat the heavy stigma associated with mental illness.
Yami Kawaii (やみかわ), translated into “sick cute,” is one fashion subculture famous for interweaving stereotypically cute aesthetics, from frills, pastel colors, bows, and sparkles, with “sick” elements (Wiki, n.d.). These elements can include medical paraphernalia like needles, surgical masks, and syringes, as well as elements alluding to mental illness and self-harm, such as bandages, box cutters, and pills. This fashion movement aligns with the concept of “menhera”, which refers to the pejorative used to describe mentally ill people (usually women) in Japan. Bisuko, artist and creator of Menhera-chan, a fictional character known for her characteristic bandaged wrists and self-harm motifs, has stated before that his mission through art is to change the negative image of mental illness by infusing the conversation in cuteness and approachable visuals (V., 2018). The juxtaposition of taboo elements presented in a cute and otherwise innocent and aesthetically pleasing manner is described to bring attention to the dark subject matter at hand while also making it digestible for a general public that is not used to engaging with this sort of material (Team R, 2018). One scholar describes cuteness as a “sweet coating” used to make otherwise uncomfortable subject matter (like violence or sexuality) easier to swallow (Brzozowska-Brywczyńska, 2007).
There are various layers to the concept of Yami Kawaii and menhera. Firstly, some critics have brought up the concern that aestheticizing concepts like mental illness and self-injury will inevitably lead to the glamorization of these subjects by young, impressionable people. A further concern has been brought up by the fact that popularizing these subjects as “aesthetic” could lead to unintentional encouragement for young people to partake in self-injury. One scholar has also brought up the duality of integrating the taboo and undesirability of mental illness with the desirability of traditionally feminine traits (frilly outfits, submissiveness, vulnerability) as enhancing the desirability of menhera girls as an “object of affective consumption” (Seko & Kikuchi, 2022).
Furthermore, there are criticisms regarding the continued alienation and misogynistic discrimination of members who partake in these subcultures. Jirai Kei, another fashion subculture that translates into “landmine type,” is named after the pejorative description of mentally ill women and girls who partake in frilly and hyper-feminine fashion. The “landmine” description comes from the way women are usually described during public displays of despair and sadness (“landmines” ready to explode into hysterics at any second) (F, 2024). While some suggest that the reclaiming of the term “jirai kei” by participants of this fashion subculture is something to be celebrated as efforts increase to turn around the negative stigma associated with mental health, the aesthetics associated with the subculture still trigger negative connotations within audience members (Kings, et al., 2022). The rising popularity of the style overseas has also led to a Western audience desiring a distancing between the fashion style and the associations made towards alcoholism, self-injury, and hysterical behaviors (Bunshun, 2021; “Even self-harm is a trend now?”, 2021).
Cuteness and Horror
The realm of horror media has also seen a fair share of encounters with cuteness. One of these encounters is when cuteness is used as a juxtaposing device in order to create a feeling of uncanny and disturbance. Uncanny valley, coined by roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970, is the feeling of unease or discomfort experienced by people upon encountering a stimulus that is adjacent, but not quite, human. This is why people find Wall-E adorable, whereas fortune-telling robots are deemed creepy (Tech, 2016). Cuteness becomes relevant in the conversation when it is directly juxtaposed with horror to create the feeling of unease by combining something familiar with something foreign and horrific. Children’s motifs are often utilized in horror to develop familiarity and subsequent horror; this is why hearing children’s laughter at inappropriate times and locations can feel unsettling instead of wholesome and cute. Some popular media that engage in combining cuteness and wholesomeness with gore and horror include Poppy Playtime (a first-person video game about an employee returning to an abandoned toy factory overrun by violent and murderous life-sized toys) and Doki Doki Literature Club (a subversive visual novel exploring the horror of sentience in video game characters).
Another way in which horror interacts with cuteness is through the “sweet coating” concept of cuteness as a way to make horror more palatable and easier to consume. This is often seen in merchandising for horror franchises (particularly indie video games and web series), where typically horrific characters are “chibi-fied” and made cute to be able to sell. One article describes the Chibithulhu (a cartoony, plush toy version of the Lovecraftian horror Cthulhu) and the ways in which the toy’s cute rebranding of the original monster’s image is a way for users to change the way they interact with the character and its horrific elements (Mizsei-Ward, 2013).
The article describes “kawaii as soft and mouthless”, nodding to the way that Japanese characters are famously drawn with blank expressions and even sometimes lacking a mouth all together as a way to allow people to project their own emotions onto the characters.
Works Cited
Brzozowska-Brywczyńska, Maja. (2007). Monstrous/Cute. Notes on the Ambivalent Nature of Cuteness. 10.1163/9789401204811_015.
Bunshun Online. “Five page spread on Toyoko Kids and their connection to the Jirai term.” July 24, 2021. https://bunshun.jp/articles/-/46977
"Even self-harm is a trend now?" (translated title)" Daily SPA!. August 04, 2021. Retrieved April 30, 2023 from https://nikkan-spa.jp/1771398
F, W. (2024, October 17). JIRAI KEI - Japan’s melancholic fashion movement │Yokogao Magazine. Yokogao Magazine. https://www.yokogaomag.com/editorial/jirai-kei
KING, B., BRIGGS, G. F., & KOJIMA, E. (2022). Fashion frontiers. In The NUFS Times. https://www.nufs.ac.jp/media/TheNUFSTimes_N10_1.pdf
Mizsei Ward, R. (2013). Plushies, My Little Cthulhu and Chibithulhu: The Transformation of Cthulhu from Horrific Body to Cute Body. In The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies (Vol. 12, pp. 87–89). https://irishgothicjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/plushies-my-little-cthulhu.pdf
Seko, Y., & Kikuchi, M. (2022). Mentally Ill and Cute as Hell: Menhera Girls and Portrayals of Self-Injury in Japanese popular culture. Frontiers in Communication, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.737761
Team, R., & Team, R. (2018, February 12). The Dark Side Of Harajuku You Haven't Seen Yet. Refinery29. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/yami-kawaii-fashion-harajuku-style-dark
Tech, R. (2023, March 28). Why we think Wall-E is cute and fortune teller robots are creepy. HIIG. https://www.hiig.de/en/robots-be-like-buddha-why-we-think-wall-e-and-bb8-are-cute-and-fortune-teller-robots-are-creepy/
V, A. (2018). Yami-Kawaii is where fashion meets depression and suicide – Arts + Culture. https://culture.affinitymagazine.us/yami-kawaii-is-where-fashion-meets-depression-and-suicide/
Wiki, C. T. A. (n.d.). Yami kawaii. Aesthetics Wiki. https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Yami_Kawaii
