This assertive, in-your-face cuteness of the cutie menhera embodies just what Sharon Kinsella (1995) calls a “edgy, individualistic, freedom-seeking attitude” (p

Though it pursue the fresh summit of magical girl category, the latest cutie menhera strategically disrupts typically harmless kawaii community with their encapsulation off rational angst and you may lso are-appropriation out of notice-burns off. It is neither a red-banner symptom of rational morbidity neither a gesture out-of social control, however, a simple technique of enchanting transformation so you can beat evil spirits/mental disease. Brand new menhera girls aren’t resentful otherwise deranged, since mental disease could have been detached and externalized as the villains and you may it is the goal once the fairness warriors to defeat brand new worst. Unlike romanticizing or pathologizing care about-burns, it quietly cut the palms accomplish their job.

Concurrently, new practitioners out-of yami-kawaii trend refute the latest premise of the scientific model that casts self-burns off once the a personal-clear manifestation of cystic

From the start, the brand new cutie menhera story might have been accompanied by a different material people. Ezaki Bisko has generated various profile gifts featuring Menhera Pink and you will fellow wrist slash warriors since the 2014. A number of the frilly, pastel-colored attire and you will kitsch jewelry hold provocative messages such as “kill your,” “unwell,” otherwise “death” symbolizing new duality regarding yami kawaii graphic (Refinery29, 2018). Among the Menhera-chan gifts, many debatable was the new “risuka bangle” (wrist-reduce bracelet) one to emulated gaping injuries considering self-reducing. Developed by an indie brand name Conpeitou in collaboration with Ezaki within the , the fresh bracelet is actually sold-out rapidly. The company then generated an announcement of a selling towards Fb for the a). not, this time they caused a storm of problem to your social media, ultimately causing instant discontinuation of your own product (Conpeitou, 2015b). Towards business’s blogs, brand new designer said which they, also, got a lengthy-identity experience with thinking-burns and you will apologized to the people who have been offended because of the tip out of dealing with self-burns as a manner goods (Conpeitou, 2015b).

While, brand new hand-slash bracelet or other Menhera-chan merchandise provides prompted issue as trivializing thinking-burns or other “serious” things about the newest act, the very thought of wearable/removable notice-cuts paradoxically indicates new subversive prospective out-of attractive visual appeals. Throughout the cutie menhera trope, brand new yami-kawaii attire and you can precious jewelry can perhaps work because a glucose-layer layer to speak one’s interior chaos and you can social pain in a playful and you can exaggerated styles. Drawing awareness of the superficial materiality, the fresh new cutie menhera takes on effectiveness a good “symptomatic” reading, which assumes on an effective text’s truest meaning isn’t instantly apprehensible and you will should be uncovered of the an expert interpreter (Most useful and you can ). Contrary to the medico-governmental proposal that there should be a great “real” material buried below your care about-burns, this new hand-slashed bracelet decreases thinking-problems for brand new depthless surface, which makes it commodifiable, consumable, which means that manageable looks work through the brand new facade off cuteness.

229) regarding Japanese kawaii community. Although not, whereas Kinsella (1995) throws an emphasis towards infantile, escapist aspect of kawaii because of the equating being attractive which have behaving childlike, Menhera Red and you will wrist slashed fighters participate in competitive public reviews because of their soft fight mental illness (worst morale). The latest markings and you can wounds was realize while the a removable accessary vakker jente av oss, instead of undesirable scratches out-of private morbidity. About your subversive possible of pretty, Brzozowska-Brywczynska (2007) contends that lovable artistic embodies the fresh new Foucauldian heterotopia-“the spot beyond your norm, the website out-of revolutionary possibility to alter, to publish an option acquisition, the spot where the coherence between words and you will reality is no more you are able to, where in actuality the contradiction is structuring laws” (p. 225). Because the a beneficial heterotopic being, brand new cutie menhera can get perform some agentic notice by the pressing straight back against the pathologization enough time for the feminine notice-burns off.