Expression of kawaii (‘cute’): gender reinforcement of young Japanese female school children

This paper examines the Japanese word kawaii ‘cute’. Teachers frequently use kawaii to show positive feelings toward objects in the classroom. Female children also are primary users of the word, which suggests that they are acquiring kawaii as an index of female gender identity. From a linguistic pe...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko
Other Authors: Jan Knight
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) 2012
Online Access:http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED542349.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45455