That it assertive, in-your-deal with cuteness of one’s cutie menhera embodies what Sharon Kinsella (1995) calls a good “rebellious, individualistic, freedom-seeking attitude” (p

Although it follows the fresh seminar of your phenomenal girl style, the fresh new cutie menhera strategically disturbs usually simple kawaii people through its encapsulation from mental angst and you can re-appropriation off worry about-injury. It’s none a red-colored-flag sign of intellectual morbidity neither a motion out-of social manipulation, however, an easy means of phenomenal conversion process in order to overcome evil morale/mental illness. This new menhera girls aren’t crazy or deranged, because mental disease might have been isolated and externalized once the villains and you can it is their purpose because justice fighters so you can defeat the fresh new evil. In the place of romanticizing otherwise pathologizing self-injury, they quietly cut the palms accomplish work.

On top of that, the newest practitioners away from yami-kawaii trend deny the brand new premises of the medical model that casts self-burns due to the fact a personal-evident sign of cystic

From the beginning, the fresh cutie menhera story might have been followed closely by an alternate thing community. Ezaki Bisko has produced various character gifts offering Menhera Pink and you can fellow wrist slashed warriors as 2014. Certain frilly, pastel-colored dresses and kitsch accessories bring provocative messages including “eliminate you,” “unwell,” otherwise “death” representing the latest duality from yami kawaii aesthetic (Refinery29, 2018). Among Menhera-chan gift suggestions, the quintessential questionable is actually the latest “risuka bangle” (wrist-reduce wristband) you to emulated gaping injuries considering care about-cutting. Developed by an enthusiastic indie brand name Conpeitou in concert with Ezaki from inside the , the brand new wristband is out of stock easily. The company following generated an announcement off a selling towards Twitter from inside the a good). Yet not, this time it triggered a violent storm away from ailment into the social networking, ultimately causing quick discontinuation of your product (Conpeitou, 2015b). For the businesses website, the brand new creator said which they, also, had a long-name knowledge of notice-burns and apologized to the people have been upset by the idea regarding managing thinking-injury while the a way item (Conpeitou, 2015b).

While, the brand new hand-cut wristband and other Menhera-chan presents keeps influenced ailment since the trivializing worry about-burns or any other “serious” facts about the new act, the very thought of wearable/detachable mind-cuts paradoxically implies the subversive potential out-of precious aesthetics. From the cutie menhera trope, the yami-kawaii clothing and accessories can work since a sugar-coating layer to speak an individual’s interior turmoil and you may public pain into the a fun loving and you may exaggerated styles. Drawing attention to the superficial materiality, the fresh cutie menhera performs effectiveness a good “symptomatic” reading, and therefore assumes on a great text’s truest definition isn’t immediately apprehensible and you will need to be disclosed of the a professional interpreter (Finest and ). Up against the medico-governmental proposal there should be a beneficial “real” material hidden underneath a person’s worry about-injury, the fresh new hand-slashed bracelet minimizes worry about-problems for the latest depthless surface, that makes it commodifiable, consumable, meaning that manageable human anatomy work through the fresh facade regarding cuteness.

229) regarding Japanese kawaii culture. However, whereas Kinsella (1995) sets a focus into infantile, escapist dimension from kawaii by equating are lovely which have performing childlike, Menhera Red and you can wrist cut fighters take part in competitive public feedback courtesy its soft fight mental disease (worst comfort). New scars and you will wounds could be see just like the a detachable accessary, as opposed to unwelcome scratches out of personal morbidity. About your subversive potential out of adorable, Brzozowska-Brywczynska (2007) contends you to definitely asian single solution blir med cute aesthetic symbolizes the newest Foucauldian heterotopia-“the spot beyond your norm, this site regarding revolutionary possibility to changes, to share an alternative order, where in fact the coherence anywhere between words and you can the reality is don’t you are able to, the spot where the contradiction is structuring signal” (p. 225). Because the a heterotopic becoming, new cutie menhera will get perform the agentic worry about from the pressing back up against the pathologization enough time regarding the feminine self-burns off.