Time distorts things

 Have you seen the movie The Rules of Attraction?  It's a movie that came out in 2002 and is based on a book written by the same author as American Psycho.  Different feel, very same satirical humor. Anyhow, it starts out at a scene at a party and the narrator is talking about different people at his college.  The scene flashes on Jessica Biel's character drunkenly going into a hotel room with the football team, alluding to a "consensual" train.  The narrator goes on to say how she's now a senator's wife, "funny how time distorts things".

A lot of trends that are popular these days are call-backs to things that used to be popular when I was in high school.  Most of the time, those things are light and fluffy and taken at face value.  Things get a little dangerous though when call backs are viewed through the cancel culture, neo-political correct society we live in today,

Courtney Love's "kinderwhore" look, mid-90s.

I fell down a rabbit hole researching the company Dolls Kill.  I'm familiar with the company, but I didn't realize all of the controversies the founder has found herself in.  One such controversy is coming out with a line of lingerie with "lolita" scawled across the crotch.  OK, so I can understand the anger when this is just seen as a celebration of Nabokov's controversial novel.  Yes, it would seem that the company was popularizing the sexualization of young girls.  

However, and this is where time distorting things comes into play, when I was a teenager wearing a shirt that said "lolita" was more in the vein of reclaiming power. This is not a trend that Shoddy Lynn or Dolls Kill invented.  Like most things designed by her label, this lingerie set is inspired by Kinderwhore and Riot GRRRL fashion from 92-96ish, mixed with a little bimbo and brat.

 

 I wasn't old enough to be in the first generation of the "Riot GRRRL" movement, which was co-occurring with the grunge movement of the early 90s'.  However, I was involved in its internet revival of sorts in the early 2000s.  Women like Kat Bjelland, Kat Hanna, and Courtney Love (god how I wish there was a third "Kat"...) used to dress in styles reminiscent of something an early elementary schoolgirl would wear, but then pervert it in a way and make it sexy but punk & dirty.  It was a political statement meant to reclaim girlhood that is often stolen from women by men perverting & sexualizing it.  

 In the same vein, but slightly different, I had a cherished pair of cut up flares that Casper from The Distillers had written "XtwatX" across my crotch after a show.  Was I trying to draw the male gaze to my crotch or say I had a "twat", no, but it was meant for shock value and reclamation of the word.

Coming from my view, Dolls Kill's lingerie set has NOTHING to do with a book about the "drugging and raping" of a pubescent girl, but is more of an homage & reboot to the riot grrrl and kinderwhore movement.  The definition of language changes and words can evolve to have new meaning and associations. "Lolita" came to mean a girl that uses her sexuality to seduce older men and be the hunter before she could be the prey. Did Dolls Kill do a very good reinterpretation of the original subculture & style?  In my opinion, no, it misses the mark on a lot of levels... but that's what happens with reinterpretations.  

I find it interesting that I didn't see any commentary on the original kinderwhore aesthetic that the original inspiration is seemingly drawn from. However this is to be expected whenever something that is based on a subculture is viewed through the lens of mainstream society.  While Dolls Kill might not be every 20-something girl's cup of tea, in this day and age, it is definitely more widely known than the original Kinderwhore fashion.  Facsimiles are always a little distorted, but they are even more so when taken out of context.

Guys, I'm tired.  I think this is all I've got for this subject for today.