Baby Fever

"Light of my life, fire of my loins" - Lolita

I read Lolita in the summer between 8th grade and my freshmen year of high school. Though a strange book, my 14-year-old self believed if any time would be appropriate for this book to be read it would be when I’m so close in age to the leading lady, Dolores.

My original impression of the book was that Nabokov was going to give me a romanticized version of his own sick and twisted fantasies (I don’t know anything about Vladimir, but I gotta say it is a really weird book for a non-pedo to write). I thought the book was going to give me a romance that I as a reader would have to remind myself is pedophilic. But throughout the novel, I had not one moment of blindness. Not for one second did I perceive Humbert (Lolita’s antagonist/the pedo) as this hopeless romantic. He was creepy and invasive. I felt uncomfortable reading, almost upset Humbert was in my thoughts. Every line read like this devil of a man was whispering everything into my ears.

I empathized with Dolores. I too a young girl who understood what it felt like to have a crush. Dolores's actions weren’t atypical. She was young and her mother in the story was head over heels for Humbert. It makes perfect sense as to why she’d originally hold such admiration for him. It’s also important to note that, Dolores was rebellious and quite the troublemaker. It makes perfect sense that her character would occasionally flirt with Humber just to work up her mother.

The issue was never Dolores’ behavior. She was 12 years old at the start of the book. The issue was the reciprocation and glorification of the actions on Hubert’s behalf. Dolores could graze his leg and to Humbert she was bare, on her knees, confessing her love for him. Humbert was a grown man who should’ve handled the initial flirting from her in a mature way. He should’ve told her to stop or better yet go directly to her mother.

That however was not good enough for Nabokov.

Humbert took advantage of Dolores and imprisoned her with his authority.

Even though I can go on and on about Lolita and its faults, it isn’t what this article is about.

I went into this anime store the other day with my friends. I noticed an odd pattern in all the female characters. Though with exaggerated womanly body features (big tits), their faces and voices were of a child.

This isn’t the only place where this kind of thing is seen.

All over TikTok, I see people dressing and acting like babies. Lots of women make content around wearing these tiny dolly lace dresses. They’re moving timid and childlike in their videos. Their voices are so obviously forced to be high-pitched. It’s weird. Especially because this is done of these girls' own free will (at least I hope).

Now there’s nothing wrong with wearing lace and certain styles that children occasionally wear. I’m not here to judge “coquette” or cottage-like styles. I love a more dainty and sweet look.

But you know what you’re doing when you’re wearing these toddler-like outfits and accessories and you’re acting a certain way. I saw a tik tok of this girl, I kid you not, sucking a pacifier. Also, many people wear these outfits and speak about wanting a daddy/mommy.

In an episode of How I Met Your Mother all the characters make these arguments around these kinds of women. They also brush on my next point which is men’s weird attraction to these women and their role in this trend.

In our new age of dating perception, the new wave of podcast men plays a large role in the attention to baby-acting women. A lot of men have been promoting these concepts of femininity and what it means to be a woman. With these new definitions comes the idea that a true woman is obedient, quiet, and bubbly.

Yes, the traits of a young child.

This notion however isn’t new. In an interview with Holly Madison (a former playmate), she told her interviewee about what she believed was the reason Hugh Hefner hated red lipstick. She explained that when Playboy was made in the 50s its goal was to stem away from the current beauty standards of women. Madison described the beauty standard of the 50s as very “big sister”. Women had more mature and sophisticated looks. Hefner wanted his bunnies to be more “fresh-faced” and young-appearing.

Essentially Playboy bunnies were created to mimic young girls.

Was men’s attraction to these child-like women what made Playboy so popular?

The idea of having a “fresh face” is still very much alive and well. Women fear the idea of growing older. Also, men are less likely to be attracted to older women. That isn’t an argument it’s statistically proven men no matter how old they are prefer women in their early 20s (it’s important to note that in most statistics 20 is as young as people are allowed to choose as attractive- so yes the age could be lower).

This leads me to question the role pedophilia plays in creating a beauty standard for women.

So much of men’s addiction to Playboy and porn comes from the idea that these women are women they can’t have. Women in Playboy and porn play into men’s fantasies. A very popular porn category is stepfather-step-daughter relationships. Ironically enough, Lolita tells a story about the affair between and stepfather and stepdaughter. The teen porn category is also very popular amongst men.

Men are addicted to the idea of a woman who appears like she’s 16. This is why porn is so catering to these men who can’t behave on their feelings because they’re illegal.

Stereotypically a woman wants a man who is “tall, dark, and handsome”. Traits of older men. Women like men who are mature and caregivers, roles only adults can fill.

Men contrarily like women with traits a child could substitute.

In my opinion, I don’t understand why as an adult you’d feel more attracted to someone younger than older. I’m a senior and I wouldn’t even date a sophomore because they’re too little to me. I also don’t understand why as an adult you’d buy want to act like a child. My whole childhood all I wanted to do was grow up. Maybe now I want to have the responsibilities of a child (so none), but I don’t want to be a child.

In all honesty, it’s fucking weird so stop it.