I began my inquiry with kawaii and Cibo Matto.  In her article, “Cibo Matto’s Stereotype A”, Jane C.H. Park describes kawaii as “gendered aesthetic style that melds the image of the underaged, sometimes coyly innocent nymphet with the pleasures of consumer capitalism” (295). The members of Cibo Matto, Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda, playfully critique this fetishism through their lyrics. Unfortunately, they are often still lumped into the kawaii category by critics and their fans. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

This 1997 performance of Birthday Cake clearly falls outside of the kawaii archetype of coy, shy, and innocent girlishness. Hitori and Honda are seen screaming, head-banging, and jumping around the stage. Cibo Matto’s persistent categorization as kawaii is deeply rooted in anti-Asian racism and fetishization of Asian women. There were many anime loving white students in my high school, self-proclaimed otakus  who would use the word kawaii to describe anything cute, often with the accompanying peace sign and giggle. The popularity of the kawaii aesthetic with white American youth contributes in part to the infantilization of Asian and Asian/American women. Japanese people are seen as “cute” objects, costumes, and props. This is only the latest evolution in the stereotypes of Asian women. As a consequence, it doesn’t matter how much screaming or head-banging Cibo Matto do, they will continue to be trivialized and infantilized as kawaii by Western viewers. 

While looking into kawaii and fetishization, I stumbled upon Donna Choi’s art project, “Does Your Man Suffer From Yellow Fever?”, which I copied over to my blog. Choi uses caricatures and parody to present “8 simple steps” to figure out whether your partner suffers from “yellow fever”. I would consider kawaii as being a part of “yellow fever”, as is instanced in Step #6 “[he relates to you through food...] And other Asian people”, where a man is hugging an elder Asian woman and baby while proclaiming, “so kawaii!”.

An interview with the artist is up on Bitch Magazine

1) He is obsessed with authenticity
2)But nothing too authentic
3) He is disappointed that you were born in Texas
4) But he will forgive you because now he is the expert on your culture
5) He relates to you through food
6) And through other Asian people
7) Most importantly he doesn’t see race
8) In fact he is the most post-racial person he knows