Complete article at the following URL:   http://media.www.beaconnewspaper.com/media/storage/paper540/news/2007/10/04/Opinion/Fearless.Fashion.Fiu.Community.Shows.Disdain-3012164.shtml 

FEARLESS FASHION: FIU community shows disdain

Nicolle Garber / Opinion Editor

 

For the first day of school, I decided to be less eccentric in what I wore. I put on my popular Lolita-style shoes, called Rocking Horse shoes. Almost three and a half inches in height, the shoe is a Mary Jane with a wooden platform and a block taken out from the back heel.

These shoes, as I expected, gathered every glare from the Graham Center as I walked through it's doors. It does not help that I'm a staggering 5'11 while wearing them either. 

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To makes matters worse, I dress in the Lolita style, a fashion sub-culture developed in Japan, where girls (and guys) assume a doll-like appearance. Lolita, bearing the same name as Vladimir Nabokov's deviant tale of romance between a young girl and an older man, is very far from what this fashion really is. Do not get the two confused.

Wearing Lolita in school is like being completely naked in front of 1,000 people. Everyone stares.

Dirty looks, clusters of laughter, and distasteful comments thus ensue.

 

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I am not the only Lolita in college. Hundreds of girls around the world-Belgium, Germany, Finland, Brazil, Spain, and of course America-wear Lolita. And before we walk out the door, we brace ourselves for the worst.

And the worst is what we get. Stories include girls being assaulted and harassed verbally and sexually.

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