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Content Warning! Content Warnings: Mentions and depictions of depression, self-harm, and suicidal themes. |
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"Fashion Menhera" (JP) is a term for a menhera character who over-emphasizes their menhera status as their own character. This presents itself in the form of "sick cute" aesthetics, which often features bright pink colors mixed with mental illness imagery that over-emphasizes their mental health issues. The aesthetic and style is an extreme and visual representation of mental illness, while at the same time showing mental illness in a more cute way aesthetically. They are used to represent mental illness in a more innocent way and counter the negative stigma of people suffering from mental illness.
Etymology
Meaning of the Term
Fashion Menhera (ファッションメンヘラ) comes from "menhera" (メンヘラ), meaning "a person who is in poor mental health", and "fashion" (ファッション), which refers to "a person who over-emphasizes their menhera status as their own character".[1][2]
The term is also sometimes used to refer to people who aren't menhera themselves, but who want to look like one in order to attract attention.[3] Though some people argue that someone who uses their negative emotions as a need for self-affirmation and attention as being proper menhera, just a sub-type.[4]
Origin
While the term "menhera" was originally coined by the Japanese mental health community in the early 2000s as a way to discuss mental health care, it began to be used in a negative manner by outsiders due to the social stigma towards those suffering from mental health issues. To counteract this trend, several artists starting creating menhera art with the focus on raising awareness and spreading positivity, which lead to the creation of a sub-genre known as "fashion menhera".[5]
Fashion menhera appears to originate from the 2014 web manga doujinshi series Risuka Henshin Sabukaru ✡ Menhera (JP) by Bisuko Ezaki and its main character Momoka Sakurai, more commonly known by her nickname "Menhera-chan" (not to be confused with the unrelated series of the same name from 2008).[5] The series features elements of mental health and wrist cutting intertwined with cute visuals, including its pink twin-tails and sailor uniforms which are eye-catching. The series gained a lot of support from middle/high school girls and office ladies who enjoyed the subculture and fashion, sparking the creation of the "yami kawaii" (病みかわいい), or "sick cute" fashion genre.[6][7][8]
When talking about the series, the creator Ezaki stated: "I want to change the negative image of mental health issues and I think it is doing that. It uses those negative feelings that everybody has, whether it be some darkness or sadness, and makes it cute".[9]
Characteristics
Fashion menhera characters are associated with the "yami kawaii" (sick cute) aesthetic. This is represented in their outfits featuring motifs typically associated with injury and sickness, such as bandages, pills, and wounds. There is an overall fragile impression, and the characters might also suffer from poor physical health as visible extension from their mental health. Fashion menhera makeup is done in a way that overemphasizes a person's mental illness. An example of this might be using eye shadow to darken under the eyes to show what they look like after extensive crying.
Fashion menhera art is an extreme and visual representation of mental illness, while at the same time showing depression in a more cute way aesthetically. It is usually used as a form of expression by people who suffer from mental problems themselves, have dealt with such people in the past, or know someone close who has suffered from mental problems.
Because of its association with the "sick cute" aesthetic, most characters in the fashion menhera genre are female. This is also true in real life, with the fashion menhera genre and yami kawaii fashion being extremely popular among women.
Differences From Other Archetypes
While fashion menhera is associated with the "sick cute" aesthetic, it is worth noting that simply having this aesthetic does not automatically make someone menhera as you can also sometimes find yandere (sick dere) characters using the "sick cute" aesthetic as well.
Similar Archetypes
- Kichidere: A term for a character who has gone insane and acts like a crazy lunatic, but whose romantic feelings toward their love interest are surprisingly cute and deredere.
- Utsudere: A term for a character who is normally depressed and gloomy all the time but becomes cheerful and loving when around their love interest.
- Yandere: A term for a character whose love, admiration, and devotion to their love interest is so strong that it causes them to become mentally ill.
Characters with this Personality
Gallery
 Sukoya Kana from NIJISANJI  Himeko Odakura, Momoka Sakurai, and Sumire Kurauchi from Risuka Henshin Sabukaru ✡ Menhera  Hatsune Miku from Slow Motion  Hatsune Miku from Darling Dance  Kosame Amagai from Mahou Shoujo Site  Yae Yoshida from Wonder Egg Priority |
References
- ↑ What is Fashion Menhera?. Zexy. “Fashion Menhera are people who want others to accept that they are mentally unstable as part of their personality and have a strong desire for recognition. They tend to over-exaggerate and put on an act in order to get attention.”
- ↑ What does "Menhera" mean? What are the characteristics of women who tend to be labeled as "Menhera"?. No+e (2024/05/31). “Other words with similar meanings include "fashion menhera", which refers to a person who over-emphasizes their menhera status as their own character.”
- ↑ What is a Fashion Menhera? Explaining its meaning, characteristics, and how to improve it. HappyMail (2021/10/17). “The "fashion menhera girl" is a flashy and slightly annoying girl who admires sick girls. These fashion menhera girls behave and speak like real menhera girls in order to attract the attention of the men around them.”
- ↑ The Mass Outbreak of Fashion Menhera. Scawaii (2019/5/21). “They pretend to be worried, get intoxicated by their worries, or try to attract favor by using their worries as an excuse. As a way to heal the negative emotions they are harboring, girls who are called fashion menhera have chosen to gain favor and satisfy their need for self-affirmation. They can be called proper menhera.”
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Spreading Positivity via "Menhera". Abema News (2018/10/13).
- ↑ Menhera-chan. Mangaz.
- ↑ Menhera-chan. Pixiv (2014/01/25).
- ↑ Menhera-chan. Wikipedia JP.
- ↑ All you need to know about Menhera-chan. Art Design Asia.