University of Pittsburgh Presents Lecture by Duke University Professor Tomiko Yoda

PITTSBURGH-Tomiko Yoda, a Duke University professor of Asian and African languages and literature, will give a lecture at the University of Pittsburgh titled "All Frills: Girlie Taste and Japanese Consumer Culture." The lecture will be held at 2 p.m. March 28 in 3106 Posvar Hall, 230 S. Bouquet St., Oakland.

Yoda's discussion will consider the articulation of "girlie romantic taste" in post-1960s

female-oriented media in Japan and how it may have contributed to the spread of

"cuteness" as a pervasive idiom in the country's popular culture. By studying the history of girlie taste promoted in women's fashion design and other commodities, she analyzes the manners in which young teens and young adult women were aligned as a body of consumers with shared affect, aesthetics, and longings.

While tracing some of the inspirations for girlie taste in earlier forms of prewar and postwar girl media, Yoda analyzes the contemporary relevance of its powerful nostalgia for the innocence of childhood, romanticized (pastoral) nature, and exoticized past.

Yoda's lecture is sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center with the University Center for International Studies and the Japan Council. It is funded by the Japan Iron and Steel Federation and Mitsubishi Endowment Funds at the University of Pittsburgh.

For more information, contact the Asian Studies Center at 412-648-7370 or asia@ucis.pitt.edu.

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