Here are some photos of Gwen Stefani at The Voice’s Season 7 red carpet event last night in Hollywood. Is it just me or does she need a different kind of blonde? I know this is her “look” – the bright lipstick, full face of makeup and white-blonde hair, which has always served her well. But as she gets a bit older, I feel like she needs to soften her look a little bit. Even if she went for an ashy blonde, that might help a bit.
Anyway, Gwen is promoting her work on The Voice, plus another solo album. The album was produced by her BFF Pharrell Williams. Gwen gave a nice interview to Time Mag to promote her work – go here to read. As I was skimming that piece, I was reminded of the long-standing controversy about Gwen: her tone-deafness when it comes to anything racially sensitive. Gwen might be a lovely person in real life, but she has a history of cultural appropriation. Time Mag asks her specifically about the “Harajuku Girls,” the four Japanese “dancers” (re: props) that she used several years back. She “renamed” them as Love, Angel, Music and Baby and she treated them like pets in public. Stefani received some criticism from various quarters, and Margaret Cho specifically called her out – go here to review. So, Time asked Gwen about it and this is what she said:
Time Mag: Looking back on Love. Angel. Music. Baby., do you regret the Harajuku Girls given the criticism you received?
Gwen: No. There’s always going to be two sides to everything. For me, everything that I did with the Harajuku Girls was just a pure compliment and being a fan. You can’t be a fan of somebody else? Or another culture? Of course you can. Of course you can celebrate other cultures. That’s what Japanese culture and American culture have done. It’s like I say in the song [“Harajuku Girls”]: it’s a ping-pong match. We do something American, they take it and they flip it and make it so Japanese and so cool. And we take it back and go, “Whoa, that’s so cool!” That’s so beautiful. It’s a beautiful thing in the world, how our cultures come together. I don’t feel like I did anything but share that love. You can look at it from a negative point of view if you want to, but get off my cloud. Because, seriously, that was all meant out of love.
And the girls themselves, it was just a magical thing to get to know them. They were dancers that were cast, but they became real. One girl was a Japanese girl that grew up in L.A., and she got to hang around with three different Japanese girls that were from different places in Japan and had different backgrounds. They became best friends, and she got to go to Japan and see her heritage and see how we are all the same. And I got to hang out with girls for the first time.
Yeah, the criticism wasn’t that she hired four Japanese dancers. The criticism wasn’t that she loves Japanese culture. The criticism was that she renamed the dancers and treated those women as props… culturally appropriated props.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Stop the botox Gwen.
She probably should. I thought she was Rita Ora.
HAHAHA omg I hardly ever comment but I just had to say: this comment made me laugh so hard that my horrible day just became awesome.
Since we’re also discussing her appearance I’d like to talk about those shorts.
You know how every now and then you’ll have a little accident and need to tie something around your waist to hide it, because you’re in public? Those. Shorts.
I thought the exact same thing! I thought it was a matching jacket tied over her shorts, but it’s just a pair of plug-ugly shorts.
she is not able to feel sorrow with that level of botox so the question was mute
*rubbing nose and temples* you’d think she’d take the Opportunity to say Hindsight is 20/20 and I was wrong and I grew Up… But NOOOOOOOOOO
You would, wouldn’t you? I mean, it’s been a minute, and more and more things have happened that should educate one about cultural appropriation and white privilege, but not so much for Ol’ L.A.M.B. It would have literally been the perfect time to un-make that bed and sleep elsewhere, but she is a rich white woman who doesn’t have to be bothered if she doesn’t want to.
“They became best friends, and she got to go to Japan and see her heritage and see how we are all the same.”
Yes Gwen, they would have never gone to Japan to explore their heritage if it weren’t for you.
White folks: helping other races discover their heritage one cultural appropriation at a time.
^THIS!
I would like to say ‘Thank you Gwen’ on behalf of the world population. Without your help people would have not even known where Japan is located geographically.
+1000
On point as usual! One person with white savior complex less on my list. Sad, i did like her. Oh well.
Wow, well played Kitten! Bam!
It’s cool. Just get Ol’ L.A.M.B. a Magical Negro (TM). She will totally melt and begin to understand herself and her feelings and become a better human being through the teachings of an old wise maid/janitor/sassy coworker/[insert-stereotypical-black-social-role-here]. Someone needs to Green Mile or The Help her STAT!!! 😀
I think it’s always tacky to use someone else’s culture as a gimmick for whatever you’re selling. It just seems a little inappropriate.
Also, I don’t know how her hair is holding up after years of bleaching. I wonder if it feels like straw?
It’s called art!
I really don’t think she was trying to be racist.
No, she wasn’t actively trying. It just kind of happened, and she’s really, REALLY embracing the result.
I think that she was not racist. I tell you, people this days are darn sensitive!!!!!
Yeah! Darn those people who call out bigotry when they see it. It’s almost like this country has a long and still-continuing history of racial violence!!! People need to calm down and just accept the status quo!!!
Unfortunately a lot of racism is unintentional. I’m impressed at the outrage on behalf of backup dancers though–aren’t they usually props? (even Benjamin Millepied is called a backup dancer, like K-Fed). Back-up dancers need to organize–get a support group with a cool acronym!
I don’t think she was trying to be racist either. I think she truly loves Japanese culture, but unfortunately came up with an extremely poor way of appreciating that culture publicly. She should not have treated those girls as “pets”.
Littlestar, I think your statement describes the situation best: no bad intent on her part, but a bad result that she should acknowledge in hindsight. However, it has me thinking, aren’t all backup dancers used as pets or props of sorts?
She was insensitive and people like to race-bait.
Yes, something is way wrong with that blond.
I love her shoes but WHAT THE HELL has she done to her face??
I could barely recognize her.
I also won’t regret NOT BUYING her crappy music. Thanks for making it easier Gweni. Also, she should really stop with all the plastic surgeries & needle work because Casper is starting to look like Michael Jackson.
Yes, she should really regret the crappy music she is putting out; time for a stint on DWTS.
Am I the only one who is just not enjoying her on the The Voice panel? She seems so inarticulate and stumbly.
Do LOVE Pharrell.
She’s very very awkward sometimes, makes me cringe on occasion. I love Pharrell as well, he seems so incredibly kind and earnest.
I can’t believe I’m defending her, but Harajuku girls are a cultural phenomenon in their own right. It’s unique to Japan because Harajuku is a spot in Tokyo for teens to gather and let their freak flag fly one day per week, with the other six days being highly regimented. That’s not really a statement about Japan as a nation or ancient culture.
THANK YOU.
Japanese street style is not sacred. It’s been replicated all over the world. There’s anime conventions held everywhere and people go dressed like that. It’s been like that for decades.
I think Gwen is an otaku chick, like me, and just really admires Japanese modern culture and wanted to incorporate in her art. And I truly think she did it in a respectful manner. She never did a show as a sexualised geisha or something.
Honestly it’s no different than Taylor Swift doing multiple treatments in her video, one she’s a total hipster, another she’s a “pretty girl”, etc. It’s the street style of a population of girls, like being labeled a hipster, rocker, basic bitch, whatever. It’s a little more playful and “out there” to Americans so it’s hard to think of like this, but it’s not even close to being an (inaccurate) generic representation of national dress (like a nondescript head dress and turquoise beads) which is what most cultural appropriation really is. Besides that this is a style and fad in Japan where people may be a different race than many Americans, it’s not really racist.
She did fail by using women as props though, much like Miley and her little people. That was a fail. But using a street style as inspiration, I think it’s misinterpreted.
Fair enough but if you follow that logic then you can’t say that Iggy Azalea is appropriating black culture.
“… so it’s hard to think of like this, but it’s not even close to being an (inaccurate) generic representation of national dress (like a nondescript head dress and turquoise beads”
A few bullet points:
*Cultural appropriation isn’t limited to traditional or longstanding cultures.
*A white lady trying on different cultural or racial identities to sell a record is cultural appropriation.
*Exploiting another culture in the name of consumerism is cultural appropriation.
*Using any race as props is not just cultural appropriation, it’s racist.
Look, I like Gwen-always have, and probably always will-but she could have used this as an opportunity to talk about cultural appropriation. I don’t think her intention was to offend but the bottom line is that she used a culture as a marketing gimmick-she could have at least owned it and apologized for offending people.
I haven’t lived there for awhile, but when I did the big Harajuku trend was the Lolicon look, which is appropriated from the book by Nabokov, who was a Russian born immigrant to the U.S. Where does that leave us in terms of who’s borrowing from whom?
I understand those points, but the thing is, I simply don’t think Gwen was doing that. I need some kind of difinition of “prop” because I really didn’t see the Harajuku Girls as that on Gwen’s show, I saw them playing a pretty pivotal part of the spectacle. It’s like they were a band and their instrument was dancing.
If you’re familiar with Gwen’s music, you’d notice she’s incorporated small homages to modern Japanese cultures since the very start of her career. With LAMB and The Great Escape the influence was just more clear.
That’s why I don’t find her work comparable to Katy Perry’s or Iggy Azalea’s. With them, I see an unfinished, poor work with a very stereotypical and tacky conception of the cultures. With Gwen I saw real admiration and respect, a much more complex work. I think Gwen is one of the few pop stars nowadays I’d actually call an artist, and that’s why I saw her whole aesthetic as an expression of art instead of a commercial gimmick. Watch the video for “What You Waiting For” and then watch the video for “Princess of China”. Now that’s what I call cultural appropiation.
Exactly! She wasn’t flouncing around dressed as a geisha, ffs. She had backup dancers dressed in the manner of teenagers. It’s as culturally significant as f#cking leg warmers, scruncis and jelly bracelets. This is not racism. And how were they treated as pets? Because they were given names that signified certain elements of what Gwen was doing at the time? If anything, they were parts of a larger whole that she was presenting. Individual elements. Unless she had them on a leash or in some kind of giant, woman-sized carrier, I don’t get the “treated as pets” bit.
And on that note, her new song is not, as Pharrell put it, feminism. I love Gwen, but the more solo stuff she puts out, the less I like it. It’s ok to be a 45 year old woman who isn’t getting things put in her face, isn’t dressing like a teenager, and isn’t releasing music that taints her legacy. She’s better than this. Or she used to be, anyway.
White people hardly ever concede to being racists, even if it’s in a micro aggressive or unintentional manner, especially women.
I’m not surprised.
Word. 😀
Pretty much
“i am like totally not racist because I know a person who is like not white” is pretty much her statement.
I feel like I have commented too much on this thread already, but I have to comment on how much you nailed it!
You had me until “especially women.” Way to use calling out racism to promote sexism. 🙁
um. Actually there are very specific ways in which racist behaviors from white women are not addressed because of the societal narrative about white women needing to be protected and being like a delicate flower.
And then there’s that whole crying when their racism gets called out.
http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2010/06/rush-to-aid-of-crying-white-instigators.html
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ899418.pdf
But… but… I think of myself as a nice person AND I made money! How could appropriating another culture into my American pop songs possibly have been wrong?
I’ve gotten lost in the cultural appropriation talk… when I was a teen I wore a “Native American” type necklace that I bought from a Native American who made it. I LOVED that necklace because it was absolutely gorgeous. I am not Native American. Its wrong to wear it? Was it wrong of her to sell to me?
No, as a matter of fact that is the opposite of cultural appropriation. You bought it directly from a Native American who wanted to share her culture.
Cultural appropriation happens when people take what is not given and try to pass it off as their own.
What if someone had been given an indian headdress by a chieftan or something? Would it then be appropriating the culture if they wore the headdress–admittedly a religious symbol, but one that was given to them all the same?
Grant: that is a highly unlikely scenario as anyone in a position to receive such a gift would know better than to disrespect it by wearing it inappropriately.
Eh… where’s the line that divides a regular back-up dancer from a prop? When is someone just doing back-up dancing and when is said person treated as a prop? I can’t think of many pop stars that have given their dancers so much protagonism in their show. And the girls themselves seemed to be having a lot of fun too. I never saw them as props, I saw them as an important part of the show that played a role in it.
I always thought what Gwen was doing really came from respect and admiration, being a big fan of anime and modern Japanese culture myself. She did her homework. I see what Gwen did in that album and I don’t think it is at all comparable to what Iggy Azalea or Katy Perry do.
Japanese street style is not a sacred form of clothing. Anime-like aesthetic has been employed by artists all around the globe. I seriously don’t get how Gwen’s shows are different from, say, Kill Bill.
Agreed. Harajuku is a fashion district not a race. There are far worse examples of cultural appropriation.
She re-named the dancers, for one. That is not respecting their identity. That is erasing it in order to promote her dumb clothing label.
I always thought this was a non-issue. People need to reserve their “outrage” for those in the world who actively hate and murder because of race or skin color or nationality. And did anyone ever ask the “Harajuku Girls” their opinion on the matter? Did they not have free will to decline that gig if they found it so morally offensive? There’s got to be better gossip out there than this tired non-story.
its just goes to show Liberals are just as capable of being knee jerk wing nuts as well as neocons…
Aesthetic culture in almost all situations like language and design ( which both use culture) develops by being copied, reinterpreted, reflected back, absorbed and juxtapositioned with differing culture – nobody ‘owns’ street culture in particular as that in itself is a melting pot itself of several cultures.
Ive been to Harajuku it was chock a block full of people dressed up from various places around the world – presuming anything originating from a particular place or group is the SOLE property of that group and anyone interacting with it is ‘racist’ is ridiculous and dangerous – how much do you people getting offended on behalf of some Japanese teenagers actually KNOW anything about this culture to pass such toxic appraisals?
Thank you!
I don’t think she is being a racist. We should be able to be interested in other cultures without being called a racist. The Harajuku Girls were not forced to go with Gwen. When she first started with them, I read about it and learned what Harajuku was.
it doesn’t seem racist to me either, I think people don’t know what they’re talking about and they just assume she is being racially insensitive because they themselves are clueless about Japanese society.
So the issue was the renaming? That is hardly isolated to Gwen. Posh Spice, etc. Salt and Pepa etc. Singers and subsequently backup singers/dancers often have stage names. I’m not denying that cultural appropriation exists, but it seems lately any exploration of any culture other than the one to which one was born (particularly if one is white) gets this label. Intent counts.
always liked her & her quirky stylized look, but these photos are shocking. she now looks elderly from the neck up–an embryonic ivana trump–& is dressed like a toddler. hello cognitive dissonance.
whatever she’s doing, botox & who knows what else (i can’t keep up), it is not her friend. it’s a shame. i get the pressures on these performers but damn.
She is almost unrecognizable!
Those girls knew what they were in for and got paid handsomely I’m sure. Why doesn’t anyone care the dancers traded their “culture” for cash? They had a choice.
Victim blaming, nice!
Those girls have to eat and pay their bills too & in order to do that you accept whatever scraps they throw at you. So when a privileged women wants you to be non entity in her cultural appropriation you say yes because you have no other option. You get it now?
I luv gwen, and I thought it was awesome!
I do love Gwen Stefani. I have purchased many of her albums and I’ve seen her live. But like most of us white people, she feels entitled to take, warp, and profit off of marginalized cultures. This is not the only time she has appropriated cultures and waved off criticism. She did the same thing with black culture right before the Harajuku thing – her whole Hey Baby aesthetic was totally ripped off Missy (of course, every white artist was up to about the same crap then). And before that, she frequently appropriated bindis and saris. I don’t think she’s a bad person and she’s a very talented artist, but she’s behaved in persistently racist ways throughout her career. I hope that there is a huge public backlash if she tries it again.
“Like most of us white people”? That’s a sweeping generalization.
She reminds me of Miley Cyrus- I’m not doing anything wrong, we hang out, they want to be there. Or that crazy woman married to the rich old guy who owns ChaCha, who goes on about racism and people don’t understand minorities, but she proudly poses two African-American guys dressed as turkeys and serving her guests drinks on Thanksgiving.
I think that Americans in particular struggle with this particular issue (cultural appropriation) through sheer ignorance. Both in the understanding it in the first place and the NOT. DOING. IT. We don’t have a particular culture and so we tend to horn in on others. From what I know of Stefani she is from California-a state with a large Asian American population. She could’ve come by her love of Harajuku honestly.
I have absolutely zero Mexican heritage but I have always lived in a heavily populated Mexican area and so I eat foods and listen to music outside of my “cultural arena” (Welsh, Irish, German). Now, I know that is different from cultural appropriation–I appreciate the culture without trying to be it. I don’t wear sombreros or front a mariachi band because I know that on me (a white person) it would come off as disrespectful. But I think there exists such a gray area for most people (in the States) that they end up stepping over the line because they can’t see it. Like all the people that wear headdresses or kimonos because they think it “looks cool”. Even though they have the perception of just being fans, without the personal connection and the historical significance it just looks like someone stealing a cultural piece to be trendy.
I think that Stefani came from a genuine place of fandom but by positioning herself as the leader of Harajuku girls and coming out with her own line of inspired products rather than say doing a collaboration with an existing Japanese girl group or bringing attention to Japanese designers she didn’t express admiration she simply overshadowed someone else’s limelight.
Gwen speaks as though she did them a favor. I guess fame had got to her head. If only she spoke well of them but she speaks as though she doesn’t even know them thus leading me to agree that she treated them mainly only as props for her gig.
WHAT in Romper Room Hell is she wearing??