It seems that no small number of lolita have been laughed at for their choice of fashion style...and that even though people are becoming aware of the style due to media coverage, they still mock lolita.

This is something I have never understood from both sides. Naturally I don't understand the kind of person who would ridicule another for their choice of clothing, but I would assume that would go without saying. When I spoke to my drama teacher about giving up on my artistic pursuits because I had lost faith in humanity's kindness and their desire and ability to understand others (why become an artist if no one will bother with what you have to say?), she told me something rather important.

"Artists, people with things to say and their own sense of aesthetics, style, are always marginalized and a little alone. That's the artist's paradox; create something that sells or create something that's meaningful to you. But that doesn't mean you should give up on humanity, or on their ability to understand what you have to say, and that doesn't mean you won't find happiness eventually if you stick with it. It's not that they're not interested, but that they're afraid. You're challenging them to see things differently, see themselves differently, and question their own safe little social order. So even if things are hard, you mustn't give up."

...oh yes, I was a little suisidal too at that point (laughs)
And then there is something my anthropology professor said:

"Artists, musicians, magicians, sure they're respected, but hey, would you want to invite someone to dinner and have him chanting and mumbling to himself? These people are on the fringe. You know, they're...'crazy' or something. They pull what's not even in the sphere of acceptable social thought, the heretical, and make it a topic of discussion. They have power. Can't take Shamans home with you."

So anyone who has an ideology to follow, a role for him or herself that does not fit in with the rest of society, is going to be austricized for it perhaps. In believing in something, pursuing your own goals and sense of beauty, dreams, fashion, creativity - whatever lolita is to you - you naturally challenge something of the accepted social order. Even if it's something harmless like lolita, where you don't yell or paint strange pictures or spit sacred purifying water on people...you still look different. And I understand that sometimes that's enough, especially in the more conservative parts of the United States, to label you as dangerous.

Now, I can understand the pain at being made fun of for what you wear and what you believe in, but I myself have never experienced any kind of prejudice towards my choice to wear lolita in the United States. I was called a Harajuku Girl once, but I'll leave that to when I'm sufficiently troubled enough to write about Disney World and Tokyo Disney. Usually I get complimented and questioned as to where I'm from, what the style is, and where the clothing is available.

The only time I was laughed at was once, in Harajuku, by two Japanese girls. And I was delighted!
I immediately walked over to them, smiled, introduced myself, and asked them why they were laughing. Naturally they replied that they really weren't, but I kept pressing them and insisting there must be some reason until they felt so uncomfortable they actually got off the train at the next stop. It was fun~

After all, you have to remember. A lolita isn't all candy and and frills and lace, and a maiden isn't always kind. To stick up for your dreams, you have to have a hard side to you as well that can see other people for what they are and turn it against them if they try to harm you. Mana once said that he liked "innocence in which poison lurks." Well, isn't that a lolita, an artist, an individual?

I don't know if anyone's actually going to read this, but for those who have,
Be strong dudes, be strong, and boldly go where no one has gone before~LOLZSTARTREKXD

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