Feminism + Lolita and Kawaii fashion = ?

Lolita and Kawaii are massive fashions in Japan, and enjoy cult fandom in the rest of the world, too. They also enjoy criticism, which is perhaps understandable given that these styles are often interpreted as grown men and women dressing like children or dolls.

I am against the idea that women should be expected to adopt infantilising fashions and look like little girls. These fashions arguably take infantilisation to the extreme. It’s true that this is the case for men as well – there’s a growing amount of Japanese men choosing to shave their body hair and wear ‘cute’ clothes to follow the Kawaii style, so it’s not necessarily about making women into children. However, in a western society it may have utterly different implications. My own mother always tells me to be careful not to go around looking too outrageously ‘Lolita’, because people in Britain (where I live) will probably not ‘get it’ and think it’s evidence of some kind of either emotional or masochistic need to be infantilised as a woman. I can certainly see what she’s getting at.

I love Lolita and Kawaii, and I don’t see them as a ‘guilty pleasure’, but what do people think about this? Is my love of Lolita and Kawaii unfeminist? Are the fashions themselves degrading or just an expression of personality?