five • Kitty Subversions: Pink as the New Black

Chapter Five

Kitty subversions

Pink as the New Black

I just loved the idea of being excessive with this sort of kitschy little furry kitty animal that sort of brought all of my different sides of styles and emotions together now in this overly accessible consumerism tool. I liked the idea of that. I like the idea of the mass production and the excessiveness of it, and I thought that it was almost very—rock and roll!

—K. B., nineteen-year-old female “punk” Hello Kitty fan from New York, personal communication, January 4, 2008, Honolulu

The histrionic battle lines surrounding Hello Kitty draw upon the excessiveness that has become fundamental to her global presence in the 2000s. This chapter examines some of the unexpected uses outside of Japan to which that excessiveness has been put, particularly by fans such as K. B. (above), who see in her a prompt that calls out for “rock and roll” play. These are not anti-Kitty critics (chapter 4), but pro-Kitty rebels of sorts who take Sanrio’s cat as a means to express what I consider subversive purposes. Here is pink as the new black. Within practices of subversion, I acknowledge differing degrees, from merely overturning our expectations to more deliberate—if gentle— politicized acts. These subversions turn cute on its head, taking Hello Kitty to places Sanrio had perhaps never dreamed. Or had they? This chapter focuses on fan meanings, but also points out ways in which Sanrio itself utilizes some of these subversions for its own marketing purposes (a theme that I explore more fully in chapter 6). I ask, How do subversive uses and meanings of Hello Kitty by fans (and marketers) shape pink globalization itself? How does cuteness (specifically here, Japanese Cute-

Cool, as described in chapter 1) enable a particular space for subversion? And finally, how do upended meanings contribute to our understanding of sociopolitical processes by which global products inhabit lives and spaces? This sounds like a tall order for subversion of small things, but looking at unintended rereadings and appropriations of Hello Kitty helps us understand some of the transgressive politics and pleasures of globalization, cuteness, and gendered display.

What is key is the notion of play—as frame, as performance, as game, and as sly pleasure. As discussed in chapter 1, asobi (play) forms an important part of the cultural frame in Japan: far more than child’s play, asobi forms an integral part of adult creativity. With Hello Kitty, to play is to tease, using as tickler the double inscriptions of cuteness itself—child and adult, innocent and sexy, benign and far less so. Most importantly, with Hello Kitty, to play is to wink—both literally in Sanrio images since the 2000s,1 and figuratively, juxtaposing complex layers of seeing and not seeing. The wink suggests pink globalization as play, with multiple ways of knowing, juxtaposing complex layers of seeing and not seeing. In this way, the subversive appropriations of Hello Kitty by fans may be considered a game whose rules keep shifting under the winking umbrella of cute.

Work in the field of irony helps us understand the operation of mechanisms of play and subversion. The literary scholar Linda Hutcheon analyzes irony not so much as antiphrasis—opposite meaning—as combinations of double or multiple meanings: “relating, differentiating, and combining said and unsaid meanings—and doing so with an evaluative edge” (1994:89). Irony rests in rapidly oscillating movement between inextricably connected semantic poles. The effective use of irony depends on shared knowledge of these semantic poles that circumscribes a “discursive community.” Thus one group’s irony may be entirely lost on another group who does not “get it”—that is, share those poles of meaning and access to paths of movement between them. Getting it, in fact, acts as part of the defining boundary of membership in a discursive community. In the examples of subversion that I describe in this chapter, each of the groups or individuals (“unlikely fans”) appropriates Hello Kitty by playfully redefining poles of meaning for their own purposes.

Let me acknowledge that Sanrio as astute producer and marketer lurks in the corridors of fan subversions. The company constantly keeps its feelers out for new and different audiences and appropriations. Within limits, company interest lies in new markets, in “growing

200 • chapter five

the brand,” in “buzz,” rather than in assessing whether or not the appropriations coincide with the core brand message. This is the work of headlines—placing Hello Kitty in the public eye, even when that eye includes subversive elements. Thus, for example, finding out that a punk group has begun sporting Hello Kitty paraphernalia does not necessarily cause excessive hand-wringing at Sanrio; rather this may be cause for celebration, generating product lines that build and extend Sanrio’s brand. These forms of opportunism—both consumer appropriation and corporate exploitation—work swiftly as converging interests focused on knowing and seeking the pulse of the street (or sometimes its underside). Sanrio marketers and fans alike want to know constantly—what’s goin’ on?—and then act in order to own and occupy that edge of coolness. Subversion works as both calculus and shifting practice of Kitty coolness.

Shu-mei Shih’s concept of “signification in action”—meanings in and through movement—helps us think through the subversive appropriations of Hello Kitty discussed in this chapter. She argues that visuality and global capitalism generate alternative readings through the rapid movement of images and products: “Images and other visual products travel and scatter with ever greater intensity and speed, and travel to a large extent alongside and with capital. . . . Visuality situated in global capitalism also means that . . . crucial contexts often reside in unexpected places, because images and other visual products go places and signify different things in different places, and thus literally exercise what I would call ‘signification in action’” (2007:12–13). Hello Kitty’s upended signification resides in the unexpected places in which she has found fandom and the active appropriation of these global consumers.

We begin, then, by tracing some of these “unlikely fans in unlikely places,” examining the subversive meanings and uses to which Hello Kitty has been put, from punk and alternative youth cultures, to gay and lesbian activism, and finally to the sex industry. In these “unlikely places” I ask, Why Hello Kitty? Also, what are the meanings and actions that Hello Kitty enables? I analyze ways in which Hello Kitty as multiply inscribed global signifier—the cat people love to hate (chapter 4) and love to love (chapter 3), sometimes in subverted ways (this chapter)—teases with a range of meanings and practices that critically define, inhabit, and expand the space of Japanese Cute-Cool. That space, dialectically produced in far-flung global settings, laps back upon Japan (and Asia) as part of its own image production.

kitty subversions • 201

“Punk” Pink Kitty

Hello Kitty subversive fans can be found in the underground feminist punk scene known as the Riot Grrrl movement from the 1990s and 2000s. That movement, founded in 1991 on the West Coast of the United States and extended nationally and internationally through music, individually produced zines (eventually archived electronically and coalesced by publishers such as Riot Grrrl Press, begun in Washington, D.C., in 1992), indie documentaries, and underground networks, has been an important site of radical “girl culture.” Often associated with third-wave feminism, which celebrates freedom of female expression, the Riot Grrrl movement has been described as “formed by a handful of girls who felt empowered, who were angry, hilarious and extreme through and for each other. . . . Riot grrrl reinvented punk” (Monem 2007:8). In reinventing punk, the radical “girl” movement took control of the means of self-expression, from public media to personal style. Thus, that style may include cute, “feminine” goods, such as Hello Kitty, reframed as part of radical “girl” culture with the confidence to embrace past stereotypical expressions. In this way, Riot Grrrls takes “girly” culture—including cuteness—as their own, whether straight up, ironized, or parodied. Hello Kitty is part of the Riot Grrrl arsenal of sartorial bricolage that “messed up child and adult, girlie girl and man, practicality and glamour, mainstream and alternative style, worked to reinvent and recirculate all kinds of meanings (Attwood 2007:241). In short, Sanrio’s icon of femininity in the hands of upending Grrrls takes part in the gender and power play of drag (cf. Butler 1990). Nani, a twenty-twoyear-old Hawaiian Chinese punk artist in the Honolulu scene explains, “I think that liking and sporting cute accessories like Sanrio Hello Kitty goods was a way that Riot Grrrls who were out to start a revolution could rebel against the idea that these were all tough punk women who would have nothing to do with cute things” (quoted by Fumiko Takazawa, personal communication, May 2003). Hello Kitty thus becomes the antitough tough stance, pink acting as the new, in-your-face black, performing its own youth-based, empowered femininity. Sporting Kitty, then, becomes a way for these punk women to thumb their nose at stereotypes, saying, in effect “We can appropriate cute for our own purposes, on our own terms.”

This cute-as-defiant attitude can be seen in the designation of Hello Kitty as icon of the week on the “Feminism and Riot Grrrl” website

202 • chapter five

Mookychick, with the explanation “Icon of the week: We all recognise that lovable face, the white mouthless girl-cat who has rather puzzingly owned our hearts since we first saw that amazing back-pack in Chinatown at the age of twelve. It’s time to greet our latest icon of the week . . . Hello Kitty!”2

This is not to say that Hello Kitty as icon of the punk feminist Riot Grrrls is without internal debate. An online feminist blog questions the extent of “Hello Kitty Hegemony,” asking “Is Hello Kitty as a logo for third-wave riot grrrl feminism merely mainstream gender hegemony in disguise?” (Feminist eZine n.d.). The problem that the blogger sees is the potential misinterpretation by the mainstream viewer, failing to understand the intended irony or parody by Riot Grrrl’s use of Hello Kitty. Calling Hello Kitty “a logo re-contextualised by parody,” the blog’s author suggests tweaking the use of Sanrio’s cat so that the feminist position is made clear: “In response to criticism that the ironic ‘girlie’ [Riot Grrrls] use of Hello Kitty may be misinterpreted, I suggest juxtaposition of signifiers in order to upset hegemonic readings. . . . For example, Hello Kitty with its connotations of girliness, and simultaneously incorporate signs of punk imagery” (Feminist eZine n.d.)

Riot Grrrls’ display of Hello Kitty, by the way, predates Sanrio’s appropriation of punk, beginning with its 2003 product line and continuing sporadically thereafter. Sanrio’s punk line designs run in black, with red or pink, often with Hello Kitty variously winking, playing a guitar, wearing accoutrements such as a safety pin, in short, red tartan plaid skirt, wearing a headband, with a pink Mohawk haircut, with extreme black eye makeup. Sometimes Hello Kitty’s characteristic bow has been traded for a black ribbon, a red tartan plaid ribbon, or a skull-andcrossbones decoration, each of which shows Sanrio playing with punk as a design motif (see figure 5.1).3 Moreover, it is not only design elements, but items themselves that go into the punk line. Thus, Sanrio’s punk line includes accessories to a punk lifestyle (or at least, mode of dress)—socks, hair accessories, buttons, pins, bikini underwear, and body-skimming tank tops—as well as the standard Hello Kitty fare of school supplies, T-shirts, and plush dolls. Although punk women such as Riot Grrrls may or may not choose to purchase these Sanrio products for which they served as inspiration, the line accommodates those who see punk in terms of sheer style. The borrowings and quotations go in both directions, from company to street and back again.4

kitty subversions • 203

5.1. Hello Kitty punk, Sanrio Co., Ltd. (2009).

Interview: “Punk” Fan Profile—K. B. I interviewed K. B., a nineteen-year-old (at the time of interview) Long Island native and student, in January 2008. Although I have labeled her “punk,” she would not necessarily. Instead, she places herself and her friends in a loose bag of edgy, artsy, alternative New York youth, appreciative of a punk sensibility, heavily tattooed, and typically dressed entirely in black. What some of her friends take as a complete surprise lies in the fact that she is a big Hello Kitty fan. She talks about her complex relationship with Hello Kitty, including both the straightforward and ironic pleasures that she finds in contemplating and purchasing the Japanese icon, the ways in which Hello Kitty allows her to inhabit her own “girly” side, the place Hello Kitty claims (with her) living on the edge. Part of that edge is the myriad products that Sanrio puts forth, creating a versatile world of endless possibilities. The fact that that world is a consumer-based one does not bother her in the least. In fact,

204 • chapter five

it is Hello Kitty as excessive consumerist icon that attracts her, and even allows her to see Hello Kitty as “rock and roll.”

In talking with K. B., one can see how Hello Kitty becomes her contact with what might be considered more mainstream society, defined in highly gendered terms. She appropriates Hello Kitty in a very personal way as a lifeline access to the possibilities of a middle-class, even “girly,” identity. Yet, as a self-proclaimed denizen of the edge, K. B. well understands and appreciates the in-between nature of the cat: girly and edgy, at home equally in a pink crib as in the dark recesses of a Fender guitar case (note: in fact, Hello Kitty has adorned a Stratocaster model of Fender guitars).5 Her interview allows us to examine one individual’s “subversive” appropriation of Hello Kitty, giving Sanrio’s cat highly personalized, alternative readings.

K. B.: Hello Kitty for me was something that allowed me to have fun with and play around with the femininity that I seemed to lack, as a young child and growing girl when I was younger and I felt like, you know, it gave me the ability to express and be in touch with it and almost, be able to associate myself with what would typically be seen as, you know, girly, or acceptable. And that was like my one side that I was able to like, connect with, and it was also something that would almost validate me as someone alternative. Do you know what I mean? ’Cause I feel like Hello Kitty brings out both sides of that, because she’s always changing, she’s always, you know, sort of ahead of the curve, and that was something that I liked to relate with, in the sense of, still being edgy, but still having that layer of cute approachableness that I feel that Hello Kitty possesses.

C. Y.: OK, but here’s what I don’t understand. How is Hello Kitty on the edge of the curve?

K. B.: Well just the fact that it picks up so, so quickly. Even like the way they [Sanrio] actually can produce a new theme and actually bring it to the market. I feel that they are always making a new image for her.

C. Y.: Mm-hmm, that’s true.

K. B.: And it’s like you go into the store every couple of months, there’s like some new thing, like, do you know what I’m say-

kitty subversions • 205

ing? Even if it’s a sort of very simple concept, like surfer kitty, or like punk rock kitty, there’s always like a new item that I feel like will go with the theme. And I sort of I like that. That’s something that I think that all girls and all people should associate it with, more than just like cuteness. Hello Kitty’s something that understands trends, and translates it into its own voice, that still maintains that, colorful, kind of cute-y, kitschy feel. And that’s why I feel that people like Lisa Loeb—she’s a singer-songwriter—like, “I play guitar; I make music; I’m female.” I can almost see why that appeals to her. Because you can make Hello Kitty into whatever you want it to be, essentially.

C. Y.: Uh-huh.

K. B.: And that’s what I feel is so appealing about it. It keeps you coming back.

C. Y.: What do you make Hello Kitty into?

K. B.: I would sort of make it into my, not soft side, but like the validating feminine side. The side that says, like you know, I may be like all black and kind of edgy and into like an alternative lifestyle but there’s this one part of me that will always be accessible to the mainstream that Hello Kitty is.

C. Y.: Mm-hmm. I can see that for you now, and I understand that, but take me back to like when you first got, say, your first Hello Kitty. What was your reaction? How old were you?

K. B.: I was a tomboy, I was probably eleven or twelve, so I was always really boyish. I grew up listening to Grateful Dead and my parents were hippies, so I sort of I dunno—it [Hello Kitty] had this like, innocence to it, that even at a young age I felt like I could identify and feel comfortable with. And I was sort of even edgy, like you know, at twelve I was listening to like punk music, [laughs], so it was like my family brought me up around that, and I sort of played music at a young age, and I just felt like it was a really good companion to everything that I wasn’t. As a person. And I almost feel that it sort of stayed the same, you know, even when I was young. But it also was the only, sort of, naive thing I ever associated with. I never

206 • chapter five

had a Barbie doll, I never did any of that. My parents would get me Tonka trucks; like my mom thought I was going to be a lesbian, she was convinced [laughs]. So that was the surprising element of me being such a collector of Hello Kitty, but at the same time, I just liked the feeling almost, of like liking something that was typically girly. It was the one thing for me. It just clicked. I would hold it close to me, like how it just made me—it’s almost like, kind of like a safety net. It was the one cute thing that made me happy and that I could relate to [laughs]. It sort of brought out the side of me that wasn’t so like, you know, rough on the edges.

C. Y.: Yeah. How old were you when you got your first one?

K. B.: Eleven or twelve.

C. Y.: So you weren’t that that young?

K. B.: No. I actually sort of looked at that as was when I first started associating myself with being like alternative. And then it was like my way of counteracting myself in sort of a, confused notion of growing up and like finding out who you are, like, wow, am I attracted to this sort of image, is this something that I can be interested in? And then I liked how it sort of brought together, both sides of me, like a side that wants to be like, girly and fashionable and attractive, but the other side that’s sort of like, dark and might not wanting to be seen as like a weak female. So I feel like Hello Kitty really brings those two together, like she can be tough, she can be arty, she can be adventurous, she can be girly. And those are all things that I felt like were inspiring to me as a person.

C. Y.: Great! So how did you get your first Hello Kitty?

K. B.: I was visiting my grandmother, and she at the time was in a condo in West Palm Beach—it was a big mall complex there. And they had this Sanrio store and I walked in and I’d always been interested in Japanese culture, like I used to take Japanese classes when I was like ten, eleven. So I was like learning Japanese, interested in the culture, and then I’d heard of Hello Kitty, but never really dabbled, and I went into the store in the mall, and there was something so—like the visual display and

kitty subversions • 207

the marketability—that really just drew me in, like wow! Rock and roll!

C. Y.: What do you mean by that?

K. B.: Like rock and roll is excessive. It’s what I grew up on, like, excessive and flashy, and in your face, and that’s what Hello Kitty was! It’s hard to verbalize, but I liked the way you walked into this store, and it was like a different world. You get a certain feel when you walk in there—you can be whoever you want to be, through this character. Or you can access whatever theme, or whatever, like an imaginative friend of hers, or anything, and I feel like you so easily get enveloped in that world.

C. Y.: [Laughs]

K. B.: And to this day when they made the guitar-playing Hello Kitty . . . I was like, Hello Kitty’s a rock star! That’s how it should be! This is perfect. That was my most perfect role for her, and not just because I play guitar and love music. I just sort of saw that [image], and that was what clicked with me the most. The fact that the people designing this, that they were coming up where they could like tap into that. And, you know, sort of hit the nail on the head as to what I think the whole brand, the whole image is. It’s very rock star!

C. Y.: So why don’t you tell me some of the things that you have?

K. B.: I mean, I have the guitar. I have the Hello Kitty bedsheets, and I’ll never forget my first boyfriend was kinda like, you know it’s not like the sexiest thing, but to me, it sort of was. Like being, you know, black hair, tattoos, sort of dress edgy, and then have this sort of girly, quirkiness, I just, I found that sexy.

C. Y.: Mm-hmm.

K. B.: And I loved my toothbrush—I had the original 1976 image of her; you know it’s slightly different. I like the way it’s rendered. I had that. I would collect like older vintage things, but also, I would like to say, my lunch boxes were my most prized ones. And I have an affinity for lunch boxes. I have some cute ones. All different shapes, ranging in different kinds of cute-

208 • chapter five

ness. I had like so many extreme Hello Kitty things, I think I had a blow-dryer—I had like all sorts of like, hair accessories. I really liked the pens.

C. Y.: So what was your mother’s reaction to all this?

K. B.: She was surprised. I mean I was crazy! Shower curtains, toothpaste, toothbrush—I mean I’m trying to think of what the most excessive thing was. I have the Hello Kitty boom box. I’d put on heavy metal stickers, like Iron Maiden, Slayer, and you’d just see this baby pink boom box, like Hello Kitty ducttaped to my desk, like that’s the kind of like Hello Kitty fan I am. That kind of sums it up, like, blasting heavy metal in my Hello Kitty boom box.

C. Y.: And what about your friends? What did they think about all this?

K. B.: They completely would make fun of me. Really, my friends were not into that. Even my girlier friends—like I have friends who are typical girly girls—and they would sort of be like—some people think it’s tacky.

C. T.: So you said, it lasted for about three years?

K. B.: Three years intensively, and now I’m more moderate. But it still kind of continues. If I see it, I can’t not buy it. But now I’m at a point where I will go like every month for a while, and that’ll happen a couple times a year. Definitely still. And that’s how I’ve always done things, sort of with a very almost Eddie Van Halen aesthetic like excess and sort of nonapproachable, whether it be like high fashion or avant-garde style, or just excessive, anything excessive I just like. And I just liked that they created a brand like, in my opinion beyond excess.

C. Y.: Is there any way you think that Sanrio could overdo it?

K. B.: That’s a really good question. I think, well you know that’s the thing—when you say how’d your friends react to it. I feel like a lot of people are turned off by it because it’s kind of tacky. I feel like the answer to that question is—absolutely not, because that is what it is based on. You can make Hello Kitty lamps; you can make Hello Kitty wallpaper, Hello Kitty

kitty subversions • 209

rugs—it’s all been done. When you throw up an empire that’s so extreme and so, like hypermode of collectability. Like, is there any place where you could really stop now? In a sense of like the Sanrio planet, I would say it could only keep building from there.

C. Y.: And what about the high-end jewelry?

K. B.: I love all that Tarina Tarantino [designer] stuff, the design that really taps into the aesthetic the same way that I appreciate it. Like let’s mix it with high fashion. Her jewelry is not, you know, Chanel priced, but it’s considered an upper contemporary collection. And she does stuff, very kind of edgy, fun, rock and roll, plastic, and materials like that. I really like that out of nowhere she sort of exhibits a Hello Kitty line. I had one. It had a big—like Victorian, it looked like one of those profile necklaces, and it was just Hello Kitty, with plastic beads. I almost bought just because I wanted to spend that much on Hello Kitty because it’s ironic, just for like the irony of it. Mixing it with high fashion, like that was exactly what I liked about the brand—the fact that a designer could look at it and think of it in that respect, when you know you would just think of it as typical five-dollar plastic parts, I liked that it could be made into all those things. Tarina’s stuff is the best, I love it. So tacky. So good.

C. Y.: I was just wondering if there’s any way in which you see yourself ever doing a spin-off or do your own take on Hello Kitty?

K. B.: I think with fashion—I make clothes. And so clothes, I would. I remember like spring break I would make Hello Kitty things, my own designs of it, like sort of black-and-white French Kitty—yeah, I would do that. I could like draw at it, through its sort of rendition of Hello Kitty with a beret. Let me think what else . . . I was into like wearing Hello Kitty, I would sort of customize it in my own way. Like I would sew like sort of patches of things, and wear buttons all the time on it, all sorts of things like that. Like that, I guess I personalize it in your own style—it definitely exists. For a while, no matter what I was wearing I always had some sort of element, whether it be like my hair pulled back in a Hello Kitty hair tie, or like, a

210 • chapter five

button, or like a necklace, some material, something like that. The one thing I always wanted but never found—I know it probably exists—Hello Kitty bikini. I wanted one. If you think about it, you’ve never really seen one. I would have like loved that. I never found one, I always knew the underwear, but never had an actual bathing suit. That would be something that I would totally buy.

C. Y.: Did you ever think about working in a Sanrio store?

K. B.: Yeah. What I always liked about it, every time I’m in a Sanrio store you get like four-year-old girls, but then you get weird people like me or like older people—just so accessible. Because most things in my life that I like are sort of not mainstream accessibility.

C. Y.: Do you know of any gay fans of Hello Kitty?

K. B.: Yes, and I think a lot of lesbians like Hello Kitty. That is something I would definitely say. Only because like, obviously the people I hang out with a lot are bi or lesbians or gay. And I’ve noticed that. For the same reasons I like it, in the sense that a girl who is not particularly even approaching a lesbian, or someone that is in need of defining their femininity. I feel like it’s a fun kitschy way to sort of point that out. That hey, like I may be this, this and this and if you’re a lesbian, or maybe edgy, or maybe this, but like I can associate myself with this and it makes you more validated in a sense of your femininity. And it’s the overall irony of a lesbian tough girl, liking that [Hello Kitty].

C. Y.: Can you say a little more on Hello Kitty validating your femininity? I mean what does that mean to you?

K. B.: In the midst of how I live my life, and how I conduct myself, and my general demeanor, Hello Kitty almost represents a tangible image that can represent the feminine side that I do have. It’s tangible proof that there is some sort of way for me to express that. Hello Kitty sparked my femininity and validated for me that I am not a complete, hard, cold boyish figure.

kitty subversions • 211

C. Y.: Well that’s interesting because that’s a little different from what you said originally, where it sounded as if Hello Kitty was sort of proof to the outside world.

K. B.: No, yeah that’s what I’m saying. It’s both. It brings people to relate to you, and that sense from the outside, exactly. And then it also for me was like, oh wow, gave me this feeling that I could like be a little girly and actually enjoy it, not forcing myself.

C. Y.: Did it surprise you?

K. B.: Yes, and that is why I think I hold Hello Kitty close. Because that was really the first time I enjoyed something typical or cute. Like I’m not someone that goes in a store and goes, oh that’s so cute. You know what I’m saying? That’s what I liked about it, and that is why I’m here and why the Hello Kitty saga will continue. With it, you can choose to make it what you want, or you don’t. So at times people criticizing it or not understanding, I think it’s because they don’t relate and they don’t understand it.

C. Y.: So who are the other collectors you’ve found?

K. B.: Well, Asians for one. And lesbians. Yeah, punky girls, people that would, sort of be in the Hot Topic [store] culture—I’ve noticed that whole bubble. Like I was just in Hot Topic and there was a whole Hello Kitty section. With all punk, Goth themes of Hello Kitty. So you could say those are the people that collect it the most, but what’s so interesting is that it is accessible to everybody. And people make it what they want. And that’s why people like me can enjoy it.

C. Y.: You used the word kitsch before. What does kitsch mean to you?

K. B.: Precious Moments is a serious cute. There’s not cartoon funniness or sort of adverse meaning to them. It’s just what society deems it. I think they’re kind of creepy, but cute little baby or children statues. They are sort of nonoffensive. They don’t have any other connotations. Like how many little kids really want Precious Moments? It’s sort of for a more ma-

212 • chapter five

ture palate, like a cute for grandmas. Hello Kitty is more for everyone—it’s sort of funny. It’s definitely a culture thing. We [Americans] don’t have the quirkiness and the edginess and the overall like, cute, aesthetic, like they [Japanese] do. And that is what I think does it.

C. Y.: I’m interested in the concept of kitsch, and the way you’ve used it. For you, is kitsch a positive or negative?

K .B.: Total positive.

C. Y.: How so?

K. B.: It’s something that is almost a fun, cynical play on things that are serious. Hello Kitty is actually a lot of it, at least in my opinion, but it has a sort of cynical feel to it. Sort of ironic, cynical, like, they know people will find it funny to see Hello Kitty in this position, in this place, or in this outfit. It’s sort of fun. It has no rivalries—it’s just quirky; it is just sort of a feeling of randomness.

C. Y.: So what do you mean by random?

K. B.: Well, how it’s unpredictable. It’s just like a group of people [at Sanrio] sitting around a table, like, “What could we do with this?” And that’s what it’s based on, a sort of fun, unexpected idea.

C. Y.: And that’s something that appeals to you?

K. B.: Yeah, and you wouldn’t expect that from something, cute, per se. And that’s the randomness. It’s just the whole relationship—quirky, kind of funny. There’s no backstory—you kind of laugh; it’s kind of cute, sort of irrelevant.

C. Y.: Yes, I agree.

K. B.: So I like to mix things, like high luxury and playful, weird, doll tattoos. And that’s where essentially Hello Kitty comes from. I like to mix severe things with cute things. That sort of muddles it up with a plunger and creates this thing that’s sort of quirky, in the middle. That’s Hello Kitty!

kitty subversions • 213

Gay/Lesbian Fandom

K. B. identifies Hello Kitty as occupying a quirky, “rock and roll” ground of in-between subversiveness. Other fans may not be quite as explicit or articulate as this. For some gay fans I interviewed, for example, an appreciation of Hello Kitty is far more inchoate—reflecting the range of manifestations of fandom for any object. Although some do not necessarily see a direct connection between liking Hello Kitty and being gay, one twenty-year-old Asian American male that I interviewed in Honolulu admits that were he to observe a guy purchasing Hello Kitty items for himself, he might easily assume that the guy were gay. Yet, exactly how does Hello Kitty play into a gay male identity? Is that identity more readily stereotyped from the outside, and less easily articulated on the inside? Managers and salespersons at Sanrio stores speak of regular male customers they assume to be gay (interpreted from their dress, mannerisms, or male companions), but gay consumers themselves more typically see Hello Kitty as within the range of their preferences and purchases, rather than central to their identities as gay men.

More readily articulated than internal connections between Hello Kitty and same-sex communities are external appropriations of Hello Kitty to represent those groups (gay and lesbian), especially within racialized idioms. Hello Kitty thus consistently represents Asia and Asians, but can represent both lesbians and gay males. For lesbians, Hello Kitty in politicized contexts symbolizes their sisterhood with one another; for gay males, Hello Kitty represents performative femininity. Thus, Sanrio’s cat may be linked in gay male culture with other performative female icons—Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Cher, Liza Minnelli, to name a few—but with a cute Asian twist.

Members of one Asian lesbian group founded in Australia in September 2000 call themselves “Yellow Kitties” and uses Hello Kitty as their symbol. The group has approximately forty members, mostly thirty-five and younger, including Australian-born Chinese and lesbians from Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Korea, Sri Lanka, China, the Philippines, and Japan. The group leader and founder, Natasha Cho, explained: “Hello Kitty for me is about having a space for Asian lesbians to network and support each other. We are a social/support group for Asian lesbians and their partners and friends. To this end, our main aim relates to networking and we also are there to promote visibility for Asian lesbians” (personal communication, April 2003). The fact that she

214 • chapter five

chooses Hello Kitty (and its nominal spin, “Yellow Kitties”) to symbolize Asian females for Asian females plays with both race, feminism, and sexuality, by way of the Japanese icon.

Lesbians are not the only ones who have seized upon Hello Kitty as a symbolic icon. In June 2009, the Houston Pride Parade included the Houston chapter of the international organization (established in 1984), Asians and Friends, with men dressed in white T-shirts and pink electrified tutus, carrying giant Hello Kitty cut-out heads (a photo of which was posted for viewing, even over a year later, in August 2010). According to the group’s website: “Asians & Friends—Houston, Inc. (a&fh) is a non-profit social group for gay and lesbian Asians and any one interested in furthering their understanding of the gay and lesbian cultures of Asia.”6 The Houston chapter formed in 1992, and currently has 80–100 members, of which about 85 are actively involved. To the question of why Hello Kitty, Scott McKie, one of the group organizers, quickly responded, “It [Hello Kitty] is sooo popular in Asia and they are so cute. We have members that collect the material [Hello Kitty] . . . mostly Asian members” (personal communication, August 2, 2010). Noel Boado, a board member, elaborated:

We have been doing a number of themes over the last few years that depicts [sic] the interests of Asians as a whole. We have, in the past, featured two different versions of the Chinese Dragon dance, which were very popular and have given us recognition as being innovative. We have also done a theme that was lifted off of a scene from the play Flower Drum Song, where we were dressed up as oversized Chinese Take Out Boxes. We did these, because they were fun to do and they were easily identifiable as Asian themes. On the year that we did the Hello Kitty, we were considering two themes, one being Godzilla and the other being Kitty. We decided on Hello Kitty because of “brand” recognition. Everyone knows Hello Kitty because of the immense marketing it received from Sanrio and everyone knows that this is pop culture that came from Asia (and Japan in particular). So that’s how we came with this idea. (Personal communication, August 4, 2010)

For this group of gay male activists (many, but not all, of Asian ethnicity), Hello Kitty works as one of the most highly recognizable symbols of Asia. In designing the costume, the group chose another symbol of performative femininity in the pink tutu—often co-opted by gay

kitty subversions • 215

groups on stage as an easily recognized, extremely gendered, sartorial display—and amplified its effect with lights. Boado explained, “One of our members, John Davis, designed what became our costumes. He experimented on what would have worked for the parade, comfort and practicality, as this parade is in the middle of June and it is extremely hot and humid in Texas. What he came up with, was not only distinctive; it was also practical and comfortable” (personal communication, August 4, 2010). And the reaction? Boado explained: “We got rave reviews. The buzz was all over the parade. Even though we did not win any awards for this entry (for whatever reason), we were told that our group’s entry was one of the few they clearly remembered from the parade, because, I am sure that it’s because of our theme. And this is what we were aiming for” (personal communication, August 4, 2010). Indeed, the group in costume garnered ample media attention, which was subsequently posted numerous times on YouTube. McKie pointed out, “The public loved it. . . . They ran to get them [Hello Kitty signs] at the end of the parade when we gave them away. . . . Houston pride parade committee used our photo on their web site this year” (personal communication, August 2, 2010). In fact, it is exactly this trajectory of response—immediate, enthusiastic recognition, people running to grab a remnant of Kitty as memento of the event, public “buzz” of the sight as memorable, and, finally, the cat’s visual iconicity given further resonance by its selection as a photographic representation of the entire event—that both draws upon and builds Hello Kitty’s efficacy as a symbol. For this group of gay activists who claim a connection to Asia, Hello Kitty may signify Asia, but, as McKie indicated, Sanrio’s cat is “fun and fancy free. . . . It was Asian . . . but not really Asian” (personal communication, August 2, 2010). That is, Hello Kitty represents “Asia lite” or, more specifically, Asian kitsch—fun, playful, and entirely commercial. When framed alongside the group’s previous costumes, such as the Chinese take-out container, as well as paired with the lit-up pink tutus, one can understand the kitschy spirit with which Hello Kitty came to represent the group in 2009. Here is Asia upended as play, displayed on the bodies of men within the context of highly performative, racially inflected, celebratory, gay identities. The subversion of Hello Kitty in the hands of these organizers lies in the ways cuteness and femininity serve as mere by-products to the overall access to broader fields of Asian kitsch and sexualized selves.

216 • chapter five

Interview: Gay Fan Connoisseur—T. F. T. F. is not a gay activist, but he readily acknowledges his same-sex preference, as well as his love of Hello Kitty. Notably, he does not connect the two. Rather, T. F. views Hello Kitty as one of many aesthetic objects he collects and displays in his tastefully decorated condominium overlooking downtown Honolulu. Whereas the Houston group performatively wore Hello Kitty on their sleeve (or at least carried signs to that effect), a private gay individual such as T. F. prefers a quiet appreciation of Sanrio’s cat. When this twenty-nine-year-old mixed-race (Hawaiian, Chinese, and white) Honolulu resident is not working as a set builder in the theater department at a private school or designing window displays at a Honolulu diesel store, T. F. shops for Hello Kitty and others items he is passionate about, both online and in person. Each item in his condominium reflects his particular tastes, prompts a particular story, and occupies a particular place in a constantly changing display (enabled by renting storage space for overflow possessions). So, too, do each of his sixteen tattoos warrant a careful choice and aesthetic tending. Where does Hello Kitty fit into all of this domestic tastefulness? In a carefully restored vintage medical cabinet that he uses as a display case containing high-end Hello Kitty “art pieces” (see chapter 6) and other quirky selected trinkets, set in a corner of his bedroom. He is quick to point out his own fetishization of Hello Kitty’s red bow as true to the bow color of the original figure; no other color will do. With this admission, he laughs apologetically, but stands firm by his discerning fastidiousness. Fussing over a bow color is all about taste, knowledge, and high-level consumption. It is also about individuated practice and identity. Undoubtedly, T. F. is a connoisseur whose appropriation of Hello Kitty—shopped for on a regular monthly basis at four different specialty stores on the island of O’ahu—must be embedded within a middle-class lifestyle of connoisseurship. As a connoisseur, T. F. far prefers aestheticized restraint when it comes to arranging Hello Kitty, rather than the overflowing display of objects that he has seen with other fans. Though T. F. may not represent any other gay male fan of Hello Kitty but, in doing so, he provides insight upon a personal, subversive appropriation of Sanrio’s cat for idiosyncratic purposes. My interview with T. F. took place in August 2010 amid a fascinating guided tour through his collection at his condominium.

kitty subversions • 217

T. F.: My earliest memory [of Hello Kitty] was at the Sanrio Surprise [store]. I liked the Sanrio gum. The Japanese gum that smells so good. It’s white. I don’t even know what flavor it is. I would always get the Hello Kitty one, because she looked . . . I just liked it. She looked cute.

C. Y.: How old were you at that time?

T. F.: I think it was in elementary school, and I liked that gum. And then I didn’t really start collecting until late high school. I liked that it was themed, and that she has all the [matching] stuff, and it wasn’t just . . . it wasn’t boring. I would get, like, the chopsticks.

C. Y.: This is in high school?

T. F.: Yeah. I carried chopsticks.7 I didn’t like the cafeteria stuff. I always had my own chopsticks, and I always carried around, like, before I knew the Japanese did it a lot, the rag [small towel]. Because it was so hot walking up and down those hills [at his school]. I was like, “I’ll wear a rag!”

C. Y.: Now tell me, what were your friends’ reaction, in high school, to this? And what high school did you go to?

T. F.: I went to Kamehameha [private school for those of Hawaiian descent].

C. Y.: You’re at Kamehameha, and this is not your typical Kamehameha stuff!

T. F.: No.

C. Y.: So what’s your friends’ reaction to Hello Kitty?

T. F.: Well, I was in the arts, because I did theater up there and speech and debate, so those kids were given to being crazy, I guess you could say. So that it wasn’t really a big deal. Yeah, I guess it was well received. I never got any heat about it.

C. Y.: Were you the only one?

T. F.: No.

C. Y.: Oh, there were others?

218 • chapter five

C. Y.: Who were going through Sanrio stuff?

T. F.: Yeah, they liked Sanrio. Mostly the girls liked it. All my Asian girlfriends, they liked it, but I think I was one of the only ones that was, like, hardcore about it. I don’t even know why. I was hooked on it. I just liked the amount of stuff. So when you walk into the store, they’re so . . . I’m a super-visual person. I like seeing all these things, and it’s a lot of eye candy. I love that.

C. Y.: What were your parents’ reactions?

T. F.: They got it. They were just, like, “Oh that’s fine. He likes collecting Hello Kitty stuff.” And then they know not to get me stuff with pink bows. I’m, like, “Just the red bow, Mom.”

C. Y.: Tell me a little bit about this red bow, pink bow thing.

T. F.: I just like her with her red bow. I think because Hello Kitty, I think, traditionally had a red bow. Maybe that’s why I like it, because it’s, like, the retro one. That’s how she was made [originally]; that’s how she should stay. In fact, in the newer stuff coming out, she has a red bow with white dots, and I don’t know how I feel about that just yet. And it’s too bad, because they had a little Musubi [rice ball] [Hello Kitty] thing that I wanted, but I’m, like, “I can’t get over the little dots [on her bow].” And that little [Hello Kitty] fan I just got has these rhinestones on it, and they’re bugging me. I just want the plain red bow. It’s, like . . . it’s iconic, that little bow.

C. Y.: I know.

T. F.: And I like it, because . . . it’s just a simple bow and you know it’s her bow. It’s, like, her bow, and I just like it red. I don’t know. I’m, like, “No fooling around with the other bows,” which is too bad because I do have some stuff in which her bows are different colors. In fact, I got this pill container. No red bows anywhere to be found. It’s purple, yellow, and magenta. But I’ve dealt with it, because it’s just her face, to me, it was just so cute. So I got it.

kitty subversions • 219

C. Y.: OK, so as far as Hello Kitty goes, what’s the attraction for you? Why Hello Kitty?

T. F.: I don’t know . . . it makes me happy to see her face. Her face . . . it’s just . . . it’s like a feeling I get when I . . . I’m addicted to . . . I like how she looks. I like the idea that she’s a fashion icon, she’s a pop icon. Everyone knows her. I just like the white face, red bow, yellow nose, and I just . . . I like the feeling I get when I find stuff about her. Like when I find the new . . . my favorite thing that they do with her is the collaborations she has. I think I just like the icon image. I just like the bow and her face, and I think she’s just a cool chick.

C. Y.: As somebody who’s involved in visual culture, is there anything that you can think of that works for you from just the visual standpoint, a design standpoint?

T. F.: It’s the way she was made—it conveys her face . . . it’s so simple, but it conveys, like . . . she’ll do anything with her face. It’s just like an oval with two black dots and whiskers, but she looks so friendly. She’s not conventionally cute. Nothing about how simple she is says “cute.” But it’s a comfortable look. I think it’s also just the contrast of white with . . . it’s so simple, but it says so much. I think it’s really pretty good design for a character.

C. Y.: In your mind, what would be more conventionally cute?

T. F.: Fluffiness. Like if she’d look softer.

C. Y.: That doesn’t work for you.

T. F.: No, I just like Hello Kitty, and I think why I like her too is because she’s so accepted and people wanna work with her. Like Medicom and Undercover [two designer companies in collaboration with Sanrio] did with all the bows all over the face [a collector’s avant-garde Hello Kitty figure that T. F. owns]. I like that people wanna work with her.

C. Y.: Now, I notice you have a lot of tattoos. Would you ever get a Hello Kitty tattoo?

T. F.: Yes, it’s in the works.

220 • chapter five

T. F.: I was thinking of, maybe, getting the one with bows all over her face, or just the bow.

C. Y.: Yeah. Where would you put it?

T. F.: I don’t know. Probably, like, on my arm here or, like, maybe on the chest or something. On the left side. She wears a bow on the left. I haven’t gotten a tattoo in about eight years, but I want a Hello Kitty tattoo. I’ve seen a lot of pretty bad Hello Kitty tattoos. I don’t want them to shade her face, so I want it to just be an outline. So that’s what I’m thinking about, maybe just a bow. But then I want people to know it’s a Hello Kitty tattoo. They’re just like, “Oh you got a bow?” But I’m, like, “If you’re in the know, you’ll know this is a Hello Kitty bow.” So it’s in the works.

C. Y.: You have a [display] case with Hello Kitty. Do you ever see it going beyond that case, or do you like the fact that it’s confined?

T. F.: I like the fact that it’s [his collection] edited, because it’s very easy to get overloaded on Hello Kitty, and that never appealed to me. I don’t want everything Hello Kitty. I’m really specific of what I like.

C. Y.: So at what point does Hello Kitty become too much for you? Is there such a thing as oversaturation of Hello Kitty for you?

T. F.: Yes. I think there is, but I think it’s a fine line. I can show you the camera I just got, and they did a print of just her face, and it’s all over the place. That’s a graphic print, but it’s thought out; it’s designed. It’s just not [Hello Kitty] stuff everywhere. I would get overwhelmed, like, when people’s cars are decked out in Hello Kitty. I can’t stand that. And there is a photo I ran across online with this little girl sitting with all this Hello Kitty stuff everywhere, and I was, like, “Oh gosh. There is a problem.” And all I saw was pink, and I’m, like, “Ugh.” I think you get overwhelmed by the cuteness. That’s why, I think, I don’t want it to get out of control, and I’m a big fan of just editing, editing it [the collection] down.

kitty subversions • 221

T. F.: I do it in bursts. Well, in fact, I just spent on a whim, because I just walked in . . . I got that camera, the fish-eyed camera, so that was like $60 and then I bought the fan. That was another $10. That’s $70 in one day. I try to limit myself to, like, $150 a month.

C. Y.: But you do buy regularly, like, every month there’s something you’re buying.

T. F.: I do! I’m guilty of going into Sanrio, and I buy stuff that I just give to my nieces after, just because “Oh my god! This is so cute.” I’m, like, “What am I doing? . . .” I open my bag and I’m, like, “There’s so much Hello Kitty stuff in here.” “Hi girls! Second-hand Hello Kitty!” But I think it’s so fun to go in there and see what they got new, and they get new stuff all the time. I do the circuit.

C. Y.: You do the circuit? So you go to Pearlridge [Mall]?

T. F.: I go to Pearlridge. I go to the Kahala [store]. I like the Sanrio Surprise[s] [Kahala store] more, because they have a lot more stuff, and they have stuff that an edited version, like, the Sanrio Store in Ala Moana wouldn’t carry. I usually hit the Ala Moana one [Sanrio store], because I work in the mall—I usually go at least three times a week. Just to, like, check in and say hi. I hit Ala Moana, then I go to Kahala Mall, and I maybe hit the Pearlridge and Windward Mall [stores] about once a month.

C. Y.: Tell me about the relationship between you and Hello Kitty.

T. F.: She makes me happy. When I look at her, it’s almost calming to me. I like that she’s been around so long, and she’s just kind of like a touchstone. I like that she doesn’t change, she always looks cute, and I just like that she’s kind of a big deal.

C. Y.: Is there anything else that works in a similar way for you besides Hello Kitty?

T. F.: I like animals, so like Butters [his live rabbit]. All the cute animals. I like stuff like that . . . because I work so much, and then I get really stressed out, and then I like surrounding myself

222 • chapter five

with comfortable things and things that appeal to me somehow, and just calm me down, like they’re my touchstones, and then I can have them around me.

C. Y.: Do you have any kind of, any personal stories of using Hello Kitty to calm you down?

T. F.: There’ve been occasions where all I wanna do is . . . I just need to . . . I need a fix. My Hello Kitty fix. I go down there [to the Sanrio store], and it’s just for fun. I just need, like, the . . . it’s total eye candy when you go to the store. I don’t always buy stuff, but, I shop it out, and I just get stuff. There are always new things in there, so I just wanna see what they’re gonna do next. And I always see stuff online, so I’m always hoping they would carry it there. So I’ve gone down there, and it’s just fun to just look.

C. Y.: Do you think there is a connection between being gay and liking Hello Kitty?

T. F.: No, not for me. Because I’m gay and I just think I like . . . like I said, I’m really visual and I like seeing the stuff that they [Sanrio] put out by her. But I don’t think there is a real gay connection, although that Lady Gaga and Hello Kitty thing was overwhelming [the photo shoot described in chapter 2]. I was, like, “What?” because I like her music and then I was, like, “She’s doing Hello Kitty?” And then they did the whole photo shoot. I was, like, “That’s crazy!”

C. Y.: Were you ever into girly things?

T. F.: No, not really. I didn’t really play with Barbies or anything, but I liked more the science dissection kits and I liked telescopes when I was a kid. So I liked all those sciency stuff, and then I liked Hello Kitty, but I was kind of overboard, now that I think about it, as a kid. I really liked her. I really liked Hello Kitty. I would, maybe, say I was a fanatic, but not . . . not crazy about her. I would like to meet her one day.

C. Y.: What would you say to her if you ever met Hello Kitty?

T. F.: “Hi.” I would probably get really nervous. “Hi. Can I take a picture with you?” Yeah, I’ve never seen her as being girly. That’s

kitty subversions • 223

why I think I never had a problem. I think for me, there is no connection [between being gay and liking Hello Kitty]. I think it’s just, like, the visual of her and I like that she is a big deal. She’s a force to be reckoned with.

C. Y.: What happens for you, if Hello Kitty really goes out of fashion?

T. F.: I’d have a moment of silence, but I think I’d be fine, because she made such a big footprint, and I have the stuff that I liked from it. I collected it, so in that respect, it’s there for me to look at, and sure, there might not be more new stuff coming, but I think I’ll have to come to terms with it. It’s great! It’s like my little vice, I just like it.

Hard-Core Kitty

The sexualized selves of gay and lesbian Hello Kitty fans find further expression in other subverted appropriations of Hello Kitty. Both Denise Uyehara and Big Bad Chinese Mama, discussed in chapter 4, play on the racialized, sexualized stereotypes invoked by Hello Kitty. These stereotypes join soft porn sites on the Web, especially focused on Asian women and the by-now infamous Hello Kitty vibrator. The issue of the vibrator—or “massage wand,” as Sanrio officially designates it—is one of the most compelling cases of Internet-fueled appropriation. According to company headquarters in Tokyo, the object was supposed to be a massage wand, not a vibrator. However, fans on the Internet picked up its potential use and word of it spread like wildfire.8 As of 2010, the original pink vibrator—for sale in the United States on Amazon. com and elsewhere—now comes in updated colors of black, red, and lavender.9

Sanrio headquarters in Japan thus washes its hands of promoting untoward sexual activity with plausible logic. But are they so innocent? Although I have not been able to confirm it with Sanrio headquarters, one observer told me that in the late 1990s, a Sanrio store in Yokohama displayed a poster of a young women, topless, covering her breasts with one hand while holding a Hello Kitty camera and taking a photo with her other hand. According to this story, Sanrio in Japan plays with the juxtaposition of the cute and the sexy. Is it kawaii as sexy or sexy as kawaii? I argue that it is both—and that Sanrio plays and profits by this juxtaposition.

224 • chapter five

With the Hello Kitty vibrator as an obvious selling point, online porn stars such as Kiko Wu, a New Yorker originally from Hong Kong, and Bianca Lee, from Singapore, post photos of themselves not only surrounded by Hello Kitty, but also putting the vibrator to use. Here Hello Kitty references Asia, gender, sexuality, and exoticism, especially in both porn websites’ emphasis on lesbian sex. However, keep in mind that the lesbian sex seems designed more for the voyeuristic pleasure of men, rather than women. Both Kiko Wu and Bianca Lee never suggest that they themselves are lesbians. Rather, they are willing to pose with other Asian females and the Hello Kitty vibrator for what I contend to be a primarily male audience. This general field combining Asia, gender, and exotic sex can be found as well in photos of Hello Kitty–themed love hotels, especially in those suggesting sadomasochistic practices of bondage. Sanrio is not far behind. Although to my knowledge, I have yet to see a bondage-themed Kitty, one recent incarnation of the cat depicts her as what I call “Hello Kitty Slutty,”10 laden with jewelry, heavy eye makeup, and short skirt. Again, we see ways in which Sanrio is willing to engage in borderline engagements with cute, pushing the Hello Kitty image into unexpected and some would say questionable places.

Other porn stars have publicly professed their affiliation with Hello Kitty. Among these is Tera Patrick (see chapter 2). In a YouTube clip, she takes viewers on a tour of her home, including what she calls “my favorite room in the whole house, my Hello Kitty room.” There she shows off her Hello Kitty lava lamp, trash can, rug, desk accessories, and many other pink Kitty objects, explaining “I love Hello Kitty. She’s pink and she’s cute and she’s so simple. And she’s Japanese!”11 Later in the video, she greets her husband in a fluffy pink Hello Kitty robe. Patrick calls her Myspace page “Hello Tera” and some publicity shots show her sporting Hello Kitty wear (e.g., diamond necklace, underwear). For a porn star such as Tera Patrick, Hello Kitty may be a personal preference, but it also serves as a brand message of “pink, cute, simple, and Japanese.” Sanrio’s reaction to such fandom is mixed—denying Patrick’s use of Hello Kitty in an official promotional calendar (chapter 2) but looking the other way (“don’t ask don’t tell” style) as Patrick sports Hello Kitty wear in online, unsanctioned appropriations.

Mariko Passion—a sex worker, feminist activist, biracial (halfJapanese), and bisexual woman—calls herself “Educated Whore and Urban Geisha,” a “performance artist | activist | educator | whore revolutionary” (figure 5.2). Her website posts the following:

kitty subversions • 225

“Hello Kitty Has No Mouth and Pimpin’ Ain’t Eazy”: Hello Kitty was born and created in Japan in 1976, and is “made in China” these days, making her half Chinese and half Japanese and 31, just like me!! . . . I have been working on giving Hello Kitty a mouth my entire sex work activist career of 9+ years. In this sense, HK stands for the voices of Asian women’s sexuality, Asian feminism, Queer Asian women even. On a more personal note, I do identify with Hello Kitty because of her childlike sexuality, it’s true. But that has always been a part of my specifically very hyper sexual, hyper ethnic style of art making and performance art; ever since I was known as the asian**** . . . If Hello Kitty is the voice of Asian women, Asian sex workers, Asian culture then, in every way, with the work that I do, I try to give HK a mouth to speak for herself.12

Passion transforms Hello Kitty into a poster child for sex workers specifically and Asian women in general. For these activists and others, Hello Kitty’s mouthlessness works only too well within stereotypes of Asian (and Asian American) women, symbolically combining muteness with passivity and Asian female desirability.

Kitty Winks: Subversive Endings as Play

Examining these expressions and uses of Hello Kitty by “unlikely persons in unlikely places with unlikely meanings” critically stretches our view of pink globalization. Let me return to the questions with which I began this chapter: How do subversive uses and meanings of Hello Kitty by fans (and marketers) shape pink globalization itself; how does Japanese Cute-Cool enable a particular space of subversion; and finally, how do upended meanings contribute to our understanding of sociopolitical processes by which global products inhabit lives and spaces?

These subversions in the hands of Riot Grrrls and alternative “punk” females, gay and lesbian fans, and female sex-industry workers shape the very fabric of pink globalization by providing an undercurrent of gendered, teasing, and sometimes controversial meanings and associations. Upendings such as these add depth and texture not only to Sanrio’s cat; beyond that they contribute more generally to the transnational flow of goods and images itself, so that one cannot consider pink globalization as merely one simple phenomenon (e.g., the buying and selling of an item in multiple locations around the globe), but as

226 • chapter five

5.2. “Happy Endings, American Dreams,” photomedia series by Mariko Passion (2007).

multiple strands woven together through an image such as Hello Kitty. Such upended rereadings substantiate the wink by providing rich, alternative semantic fields. The surprise element of the upendings causes pause, sometimes generating media attention (e.g., Houston Gay Pride Parade), and this, too, works toward complicating and enriching pink globalization. Although not everyone viewing Hello Kitty in these “unexpected places” may fully “get” the upended meanings by which she is appropriated, these meanings enhance the complex multivalence of the cat, and thereby pink globalization. The result is greater ambiguity and richer semantic resources tied to pink globalization, producing a broad ground of associations coalescing around the playfulness of a wink.

Japanese Cute-Cool enables this wink, in part by the many layers of meaning from which it is drawn in Japan (chapter 1), in part by the multiple populations that respond to its appeal globally. The wink of pink globalization draws upon concepts of kawaii and shōjo in contemporary Japan, calling forth both child and adult, as the innocent

kitty subversions • 227

and the sexualized meshed into one. In the 2000s, many global fans respond to the special (Japanese) qualities of Sanrio’s cat. As this chapter shows, Japanese Cute-Cool invites a particular space of subversion in Euro-American settings in part through its subtle but critical difference from mainstream Western visual culture. What many of these—and other—fans recognize and consider critical to the process of upending is that this is not cuteness along the lines of American Disney or Precious Moments. Instead, Hello Kitty represents the not-America cuteness of complex, multilayered appeal that constitutes its cool (as expressed by Dan Peters in chapter 2). This is the work of Sanrio and its designers. Subversion in this light is not happenstance, but integrally embedded as an invitation and imperative, often drawn from within the complex ambiguity of kawaii-branded, corporate-produced cool-cuteness.

These subversions are not only by invitation. I contend that they also arise out of a certain amount of Euro-American willingness, even eagerness, to play with Asia—as a racialized stereotype, as an orientalized figure, as a site of exotic vulnerability. Knowing this, Asian Americans can take part in this practice as well, from a more complex position of subjectivity (including self-orientalization) for their own purposes. The willingness to play with Asia (and Asian objects such as Hello Kitty) in particular ways comes from a position of relative global prestige. If the shoe were on the other foot in Sanrio’s home context—that is, if Asians/ Japanese became enamored with, for example, Mickey Mouse (as many are)—I believe there would be fewer Asian/Japanese fans willing to upend Disney’s rodent in subversive ways, or at least in these kinds of subverted expressions. Because Mickey Mouse represents America, and because America still represents a certain amount of global achievement to many, the relationship between fans and object differs. Fewer Asian/ Japanese fans would see Disney’s mouse as a countermeasure to their own mainstream culture, primarily because mainstream cultures of Asia/Japan often include aspects of Euro-American culture as symbols of modernity and prestige (Raz 1999). In short, one would not subvert one’s aspirations or goals. The contrast here rests multiply in objects of global prestige, relationship to commodities, and practices of playful subversion. (Note as well the relative lack of anti–Hello Kitty sentiment and expression in Japan, discussed in chapter 4.)

The relationships tangle in complex ways: many Euro-American fans enjoy Hello Kitty’s un-American version of cuteness, within whose ambiguity they may create spaces of subversion; Asian/Japanese fans of

228 • chapter five

an object such as Mickey Mouse accept Disney’s icon as representative of America, including its global power and domination. Whereas Hello Kitty may help the Euro-American carve out a space of subversion for her appreciation of a non-Western object, at least some Asian (here, Japanese) consumers embed themselves within a prestige system that expresses lingering akogare (longing admiration) for the West and its consumable objects (see also Kelsky 2001:148). As a result, Mickey Mouse in the hands of such an Asian consumer begets far less of a subversive consumer wink. (Ironically, the wink may occur more at the hands of Asian producers, as Sanrio so handily demonstrates, than in consumers.) It is not that Japanese consumers never wink with commodities, but that the wink may occur through other creative expressions, such as playful juxtapositions and innovative combinations of goods.

Transnational objects such as these entangle themselves in a bundle of associative meanings, including the global prestige of the country of origin, signposts of modernity, and countercultural means of subversion. Exploring subversive uses to which Hello Kitty is put by EuroAmerican fans helps us analyze just what upending might mean in a complex global web of significations. That the web takes place in the context of movement— “signification in action”—makes this study of pink globalization critically important for generalized processes of meaning making in a shifting world. That the web spotlights a commodity that moves across borders, thereby fetishizing the wink, makes subversion a critical tool for fans, corporations, and researchers alike to consider objects, emotions, identifications, and meanings.

In the next chapter, I explore other “subversive” uses of Hello Kitty— in this case, focusing on creative expressions by serious artists. Analyzing their aesthetic appropriations allows us to consider further processes of global meaning making and the uncanny agility of Sanrio’s mouthless cat.

kitty subversions • 229