Dear Lolita: An Open Letter to the Schoolgirl Trope

CONTENT WARNING: Pedophilia and sexual assault.

Knee-high socks. A pleated skirt that barely reaches the knees. A blouse with a few too many buttons undone. Pigtails. Bows. Mary Janes. Youthful innocence. The schoolgirl, sexualized and objectified, while the patriarchy thrives.

Our society's fixation on the objectification of women and a collective infatuation with youth and innocence has created the perfect storm: the fetishization of the schoolgirl. Simply put, the schoolgirl trope is the abhorrent brain child of pedophilia and sexism.

Many trace the trope to Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel "Lolita." It depicts a middle-aged man, Humbert, smitten with a 12-year-old schoolgirl named Dolores, marrying her mother just so he can be close to her. But Gary Morson, an author and professor of Slavic literature at Northwestern, says pedophilic stories can also be seen in older Russian literature.

“In Dostoevsky’s ‘The Possessed,’ the hero actually rapes a young girl,” Morson says. “Though it’s mainly political, the novel has themes that Nabokov expands upon in ‘Lolita.’”

Though Nabokov may have drawn from earlier literature, his pedophilic hyperfixation in “Lolita” still stands out as one of the most prominent depictions of this schoolgirl phenomenon.

Take a passage in which the narrator, Humbert, passionately proclaims, “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul … She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.”

Alarmingly, he calls her “Lolita,” his own special name for her. The use of the suffix “-ita” is important to note; in Spanish, instead of adding the adjective pequeño (meaning small or little), one can use the diminutive suffix -ito, -ita, -itos or -itas. The suffix not only indicates a diminutive size, but in some cases, it can add a nuance of affection, or soften the meaning of the actual word. His disturbing and belittling pet name for her takes away her sense of self and identity.

As the schoolgirl trope has grown from “Lolita” over the years, that trend continues: this sexualization takes away women’s sense of self and identity. Many women experience sexual harrasment while wearing school uniforms — a survey by Plan International UK reports that 35% of girls wearing school uniforms have been sexually harassed in public.  

Speaking of school uniforms, their aesthetic aligns with what we consider to be the traditional schoolgirl. Though uniforms are not necessarily sexual on the surface, there’s a certain connotation with a pleated skirt and a blouse: take the occasional provocative styling of school uniforms on the hit show “Gossip Girl.” Is sexualizing women the only way that men find women in education palatable and acceptable?

Olivia Alexander, a second-year at Northwestern, attended an all-girls Catholic high school with a strict uniform. “Some of my friends felt uncomfortable by certain male teachers,” she says. “I do wonder if this power dynamic would have happened if we weren’t wearing skirt uniforms.”

In television shows that depict the lives of teens, adults are often unfortunately cast to play characters sometimes decades younger than them. Shows like “Riverdale” and “Pretty Little Liars” then hypersexualize these teens, exploring and exaggerating their sex lives and relationship drama.

In an extreme case, a storyline in “Pretty Little Liars” directly follows, and romanticizes, a teacher-student relationship.

 “The relationship sent a message,” Alexander says. “Watching the whole situation was uncomfortable.” 

But that relationship is just one example of the sexualized schoolgirl. Britney Spears’ infamous “…Baby One More Time” music video plays into these stereotypes, with Spears wearing knee-high socks, a pleated skirt and a cropped blouse tied to show her cleavage. She was only 16 when the video was made.

Though society’s obsession with youth and the objectification of women is at play, we cannot ignore the fact that media is being created to specifically please those who lust after adolescents. We must hold perpetrators of the trope accountable as well. 

In my experience, wearing a pleated skirt and knee-high socks immediately makes me feel perceived, sexualized and objectified. The male gaze leaves me feeling stripped of my own identity. I cannot wear clothing that has a school uniform aesthetic without fearing the repercussions. 

Two of my ex-boyfriends requested I buy knee-high socks for their enjoyment. One of my friends was sexually assaulted at a Halloween party dressed as Britney Spears à la “…Baby One More Time.” Countless high school and college students wear a revealing school uniform on Halloween. “Teen” and “schoolgirl” are some of the top searches on pornographic websites. 

To Lolita: I wish you never fell into the clutches of a sexist and pedophilic society. It is not your fault you ended up in the disturbing hands of Humbert. I hope we can learn — not from your mistakes, but from the mistakes that have collectively built up from the moment your story was shared.