There's a movement in South Korea, about something similar yet different, called "Escape the Corset." I don't know enough about either two countries, or cultures, or concepts, to compare and contrast in any meaningful manner, but reading this made me think of South Korea almost immediately. More broadly speaking though, I think a ton of countries, America included, really very much need to take a hard look at image standards and social conformity. In a nutshell, I think societies often equate superficial looks and social conformity with a need to compete and signalling that an individual is a productive member of society. It's suffocating us as individuals, it really is, because the boxes we have to tick are not only often meaningless, but if we were really mindful of who we are as individuals, we would think maybe that we don't even want to tick those boxes. I'll never be in congress, but if I was, I'd make a conscious decision to never wear a suit and tie.
i agree with buteos, and i think that drawing parallels with south korea is a good observation too. the struggle against conformity is a huge issue in both cultures, but i'm not sure pointing the finger at "kawaii culture" makes sense any more than blaming carl's jr ads for causing the sexualization of women - i feel like the cause and effect are getting flipped around i think the western viewpoint on kawaii stuff wants to equate it with sexualization and that's not super accurate in a lot of cases unless you think rilakkuma is sexy, it's more making things childish/helpless, which of course can be paired with sexualization but definitely isn't all the time: that kind of aesthetic is a way to recede from how shitty the grind is in japan more than anything else i feel like in a less drastic way than NEETing