Labubu dolls, the new absurd phenomenon that causes queues
A new absurd phenomenon is causing lines in some stores and overwhelming online sales platforms. Labubu dolls, a kind of small, furry monster, have taken over from Sonny Angels, those naked babies with fruit-shaped hats that are attached to cell phones, laptops, or car rearview mirrors. Labubu dolls have bunny ears, huge eyes, and a smile that displays a long row of pointed teeth. Despite their efforts to put on a mischievous face, they reveal absolute candor. They seek to awaken feelings of tenderness. The dolls were created by artist Kasing Lung and are part of the Pop Mart universe, which always seeks these types of characters that provoke an emotional reaction despite their apparent imperfection. They fit the aesthetic kawaii, what does it mean adorable in Japanese and is linked to generating responses of compassion and affection. Hello Kitty is, surely, the paradigmatic creature of this movement. Culturally, the birth of this aesthetic in the seventies and eighties has been interpreted as a reaction to the social rigidity of Japan that has ended up globalizing.
In recent months, Labubu have activated the possessive instinct of all kinds of devotees. But it must be kept in mind that it is not a toy but a decorative object. It is also an affective stimulant to generate emotional comfort. The main clients are women between twenty and forty years old, as with the Sonny Angels. They create a kind of fever around them that further increases the desperation to possess them.
The origin of this emotional response was scientifically explained by Konrad Lorenz, one of the founders of modern ethology. Thirty years before winning the Nobel Prize, he developed his theory of baby schema linked to evolutionary psychology. He explained that children's morphological characteristics, such as having a head larger than their body, fat and round eyes, a small nose, and a broad forehead, provoke an instinctive protective response from adults. The perception of extreme friendliness induces adults to care for infants. In fact, it also occurs when we see mammal pups. Aesthetics kawaii and the Pop Mart characters have done nothing but reproduce the pattern Lorenz described. The result is lines of more than three hours at pop-up stores that are devastated within a few days. On Instagram, images of this nervous wait serve as a lure to make the desire to own one even more fervent.
Beyond the aesthetic ingenuity, the cultural phenomena, and the fashions surrounding these dolls, however, there is this inertia to encourage the consumption of children's dolls among adult women, promoted by actresses, influencers and designers who exalt their emotional virtues and enhance their role as affectionate, tender, and silent companions. Emotions have filtered into capitalist consumption, and buying these dolls is so cute allows for the trading of values such as nostalgia and tenderness. Sociologist Sharon Kinsella, a professor at the University of Manchester, has considered these fashions to be a culturally institutionalized way of suppressing the active power of girls. It would amount to a domestication of dissent through stimulating sensations such as obedience or emotional restraint that these dolls transmit. Philosopher and cultural critic Sianne Ngai, of the University of Chicago, warns that cuteness, what is cute, awakens affection but also the desire for domination.
Perhaps after delving deeper into these studies, the Labubu's faces will seem a little more terrifying to you than when you first discovered them.
