Lolita is basically a fashion sub-culture that enjoys Victoria-era clothing, but there are many different kinds like goth loli, classic loli, sweet loli, etc. Simple right? An innocent and sweet fandom dedicated to dressing beautifully.
Except it's created one of the biggest backstabbing, cut-throat cultures I have ever seen in my life, and the amount of lolcow material is incredible.
Anyone who's even slightly involved or knowledgeable about Lolita knows about a LiveJournal called "Behind the Bows". People submit images with text on them anonymously, which get posted anonymously - and then people comment on them (often anonymously) in the comments. What horrible content could fashion lovers possibly create?
Every single one of the currently #186 and counting Secret Posts that are posted weekly involve multiple callouts with blatantly recognisable features, very brutal and nasty comments - and a lot of the time it's very obvious whoever posted the photo was from that person's community or was a friend - creating a culture of paranoia.
Even some of the legitimately nicest girls in the Lolita community check this blog religiously, knowing that their picture could show up any time and they become a laughingstock. The Lolita community is big enough to have a huge following, but also small enough it's quite easy to figure out who someone is based on their photo and comments made on it.
Also, the trends are constantly changing - currently there's a huge backlash against Muslim lolita dressers, resulting in images like this being posted:
Lolita even has its own scandals - Mr Yan, owner of Bodyline, invites underage young models to Japan to model for his brand (basically the cheapest brand there is), while creeping on them and hinting at marriage. If you know Venus Angelic, she already has an ED page which briefly covers the saga.
https://encyclopediadramatica.se/index.php?title=Venusangelic&diff=prev&oldid=607933
Lolita culture is hard to describe to someone who hasn't really looked into it, like the hatred of "non-burando" (off-brand Lolita clothing), which brands rank higher than others, etc etc. What we could call "w-eens" or "cool guys", they call "itas" (from the last half of "lolita") to refer to try-hards, often weebs coming into the Lolita fandom with cheap cosplay shit, etc.
The reason why I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY is because due to the aesthetic of being pretty, classy, refined women, you will NEVER hear these girls say this shit or drag those bitches as hard as they do anonymously. So time and time again, the comments (with names attached) will be soothing, positive, nice, friendly etc - while the images and anonymous comments (which are most of them) each week are the most brutal shit ever.
And it's not always "I hate this girl, wah~!" or whatever, there are some legitimately great scandals like girls scamming Lolita forums, girls selling blatantly blood-stained dresses as brand new, hilarious stories about meet-ups that are social train wrecks, hostile take-overs of communities, the previously mentioned creepy Mr Yan, etc. Good value if you have the time.
Every image example above are selected samples from "Secrets Posts" #183, #184, #185 and #186. There are screeds and screeds. Enjoy.
http://behind-the-bows.livejournal.com/
Nailed it.
I've just literally never heard of a group doing this. Like, not even as a silly rumor or something. There are a lot of dumb rumors in lolita but that's a totally new one. Oh well.
THE DRAMA IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE THREAD
When I was in the fandom, there were a few girls who decided to use lolita as a lifestyle and not just a fashion. That's probably where the ideas that sex, drugs, etc aren't acceptable. In some of the groups I was in, girls could be shunned for having boyfriends and not living the loli way. I never used the chan's, so the "generation gap" between older and newer loli's is possibly why there are discrepancies between what you've experienced and what others have come from. Obviously, the fashion and what is acceptable in it has evolved over the years to keep up.I've just literally never heard of a group doing this. Like, not even as a silly rumor or something. There are a lot of dumb rumors in lolita but that's a totally new one. Oh well.
There are some groups that don't like cussing or drinking or discussion of drugs at meets, I guess.. I don't think that's really common either. One thing that DOES happen is there are a couple of groups who ban people who post on or even look at /cgl/ and behind-the-bows. I've heard of that. I think it's only a couple of comms. Also, how would they know? They're not supposed to be looking there either lol.
Since people mentioned harassment, here's kind of an interesting recent lolcow event. A pretty notorious lolita made a group called L.A.C.E. It stands for Lolitas Against Cyberbullying and Exploitation:
As soon as it popped up shit hit the fan. The girl who made it pretty much made it because some girl posted about an IRL encounter with her on /cgl/ that even /cgl/ said was stupid and uninteresting, but it really irritated this girl so she came up with LACE. LACE's mission isn't exactly clear. A lot of people started asking what LACE intended to do, which no one could really answer. A bunch of e-famous lolitas joined it and made videos promoting it and to date their biggest accomplishment has been getting a bunch of girls to take selfies holding up signs that say "we support LACE!" It's been around for a few months now.
But being against cyberbullying and exploitation is good though, right? Well a lot of lolitas had pretty much the same point that Kiwis often do: saying mean things on the internet isn't cyberbullying, much less exploitation. And that's pretty much the extent of the drama that goes on in places like /cgl/ or behind-the-bows. Someone will say a girl's dress is ugly and she will start screaming about how she's being cyberbullied. Half the time it's rooted in some personal drama no one knows anything about. A lot of the time it isn't even being mean, people will offer coordinate suggestions ("I think that a black purse would go much better with your coord") and newbies will chimp out about "elitism" and "bullying" It's cyberbullying in as much Brianna Wu gets cyberbullied.
The Arizona comm is one. White knights will appear as soon as you mention anyone from the area on /cgl/. I can't help but wonder how they try to figure out who's the person posting.
What's your internet religion then?
The crossing furries with lolita was one of my favorite chimp outs to watch! I dunno if it was a troll or not, but someone started posting drawings of furries in lolita (Which were rather cute) and that particular EGL LJ community went nuts. They didn't want the bad yiffing furry fetishists dressing in anything loli and disrespecting the fashion/brands.
