Dear Internet: Lolita is a fashion, not a fetish

Dear inhabitants of the internet,

I'm sorry to inform you but you have been horribly misinformed on what Lolita is, and by Lolita I mean the fashion style.

Like this example of real Lolita

Lolita is a Japanese fashion trend that has become popular not only in Japan but in the western pop culture in the past couple of years. The style is based on Victorian fashion ideals: Show as little skin as possible. This entitles that real Lolita follows these guidelines; long sleeved dresses that reach knee-length and a high collar, gloves, an coat and hat in some instances and tights. And you better be wearing a petticoat.

However, when most people think Lolita they think its a sex fetish. Why? The style shares the same name of a certain Russian novel written by Vladimir Nabokov, along with the name of one of the main characters in that novel: a young girl named Lolita who the main character of the book becomes sexually obsessed with. Not only is the girl 12 years old but she goes along with the main characters fetish. It makes sense that Lolita is a bad name to associate with obviously.

But despite sharing a name, that is the only resemblance between the two. The fashion style is about modesty, not a weird fetish. In the end however, few people know this as pop culture has made it so that the terms Lolita and Loli refer to sexually attractive young women and allows for people to label outfits that are provocative with the term, despite the fact that they are nothing alike.

In the end, you can't really do much about the internet. But still, please respect real Lolita. It's not all that bad.