How Hello Kitty Commodifies the Cute, Cool and Camp

Consumutopia’ versus ‘Control’ in Japan

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2390783
AutoresBrian J Mcveigh (Tôyô Gakuan University, Japan, autor de correspondencia)
Año2000
Volumen5
Número2
Páginas225-245
Fecha de publicación2000-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/135918350000500205
OpenAlexW2062441642
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas45
Referencias citadas18

Asked about Hello Kitty, respondents judged those interested in this 'character good' within a framework of freedom/self-autonomy versus coercion/compulsion. The former is associated with what may be termed 'consumutopia' (a counter-presence to mundane reality fueled by late capitalism, pop culture industry, consumerism), while the latter is connected to 'control', a critical view of self/collective relations that also comments on Japanese ethno-identity. Hello Kitty also demonstrates the need to focus not just on different tastes within a society, but also on ambiguous and diverse attitudes within the same individual. Such diversity allows Sanrio, Hello Kitty's maker, to link within one individual different modes of self-presentation, chronologically corresponding to girlhood ('cute'), female adolescence ('cool'), and womanhood ('camp'). Thus, as people mature, appeals to nostalgia encourage a reconnection with the past by buying products united by one leitmotif; same commodity, same individual, different ages/tastes/styles/desires

Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Autonomy · Capitalism · Coercion (linguistics · Commodity · Consumerism · Diversity (politics · Economics · Identity (music · Late capitalism · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Music History and Culture