Feminism, Lolita, Punk, and more

I saw a post on tumblr a while ago saying that maybe people don't like Lolita or hold it as socially acceptable because it takes up space while still being feminine, and that in our society femininity is meant to be small and elegant and unnoticeable. While that's a nice thought, at least on social justice grounds, I wholly disagree.

I think that people don't like Lolita for the same reasons they don't like other "rebellious" fashions that "go against the mainstream": they're weird. It has less to do with being feminine than it has to do with the taking up space part. If a sweet Lolita is walking down the street, there's no way you're gonna miss her. She's in a bright, noticeable colour - usually pastel pink, blue, yellow, lavender, green. Something that isn't commonplace in large quantities. Then she has her accessories and her her purse and most likely a wig and maybe even a parasol or a stuffed animal ... that's gonna attract attention. So everyone's looking at you, and you are, in their eyes, weird.

It's the same deal, though, if you're walking down the street and you've got a green liberty spikes goin', a battle jacket on, chains hanging from your jeans, and big ol' steel-toed platform boots strapped to your feet. Male or female, doesn't matter. You look aggressive, you look like you could be dangerous, and you look fucking weird.

The same argument can be made for anyone dressing in a Goth style, male or female, masculine or feminine. Metalheads, both male and female are subject to the same judgments, and that subculture is (a) mostly male and (b) masculine in pretty much everything involved. Even "emo/scene kids" get those looks and they're mostly just in jeans and t-shirts and a swoop-banged haircut. Basically, it's outside of what's considered a "normal" appearance, and therefore people don't like it (or they at least look at you strangely or think you yourself are strange).

What I'm saying is, I think that the OP of the tumblr post was just trying to wrangle a feminist argument out of something else they're interested in. Snap-judgments made against Lolitas and any other fashion groups and subcultures, in my opinion, have less to do with sex and gender issues than just a general lack of acceptance of anyone and anything different.