Gwen Stefani defends herself against longtime cultural appropriation claims

[BUtterfield 8 39,783]

Singer Gwen Stefani addressed accusations that she's appropriated Japanese culture throughout her career in a new interview with Paper Magazine.

"If we didn't buy and sell and trade our cultures in, we wouldn't have so much beauty, you know?" Stefani said of her Harajuku girls, a group of four Japanese girls who accompanied the "Hollaback Girl" singer on tour and for media appearances.

The former "No Doubt" frontwoman explained what sparked her interest in having the girls become part of her stage act, which she said was richly influenced by Japan.

"I had this idea that I would have a posse of girls — because I never got to hang with girls — and they would be Japanese, Harajuku girls, because those are the girls that I love. Those are my homies," she told Paper. "That's where I would be if I had my dream come true, I could go live there and I could go hang out in Harajuku."

Stefani, who performed at a White House state dinner in 2016, also incorporated Japanese style into her music and fashion. "The Voice" judge defended her decisions to Paper, arguing, "We learn from each other, we share from each other, we grow from each other."

She continued, "And all these rules are just dividing us more and more."

Source

[lego 44,165]

[ChicaSkas 21,624]

I see what she means. Maybe i want to hear a leeeetle more contriteness and acknowledgment,  but I do see what she means. 

She has enjoyed adapting to cultures for ages. 

First Indian culture because she was Tony's GF

Secondly Chola culture because she loves the Anaheimian Latino counter culture in OC. 

Thirdly the Japanese art influences. 

Oh and Reggae too! Jamaican colors .

[RainingOnMe 7,229]

Interesting. First time she's ever spoken out about this, and well said. I really respect her and see her perspective. She never did it because it was "trendy" (like actual cultural appropriation happening now) but because she appreciated it and found beauty in other cultures. I'm glad she learned from her mistakes and educated herself too.

[RAMROD 100,554]

only some PC folks are triggered by this. No Japanese people ever get offended by this.

[ChicaSkas 21,624]

10 minutes ago, RainingOnMe said:

Interesting. First time she's ever spoken out about this, and well said. I really respect her and see her perspective. She never did it because it was "trendy" (like actual cultural appropriation happening now) but because she appreciated it and found beauty in other cultures. I'm glad she learned from her mistakes and educated herself too.

This. Gwen / the band No Doubt was my first musical love as a teenager and *because* she was so into Ska and dating someone of another race and so into exploring the world (see the No Doubt song "Different People") she inspired me to get out of my box and learn about these cultures. 

And I got hooked. Ska music was my drug for a long time before Gaga. And I have an interracial relationship coincidentally. 2 different cultures. He calls me Chica and I love Ska music. That's how I made my name here even.  She made it safe for a curious white girl like me to explore these things. 

[River 99,138]

4 minutes ago, ChicaSkas said:

And I have an interracial relationship coincidentally. 2 different cultures.

I can so relate to this, we're an Israeli-Italian couple, the house is a mix of the 2 cultures if it's the food, the languages, music, everything and we're living abroad so we're adding the country's culture too.

It's amazing how the USA is full of many cultures, but these cultures don't mix with each other, you're just divided, Gwen always tried to show that there is a different way, that we can all mix our cultures and enjoy what what each and every one of us have to share, from our history to the present.

[ChicaSkas 21,624]

5 minutes ago, River said:

I can so relate to this, we're an Israeli-Italian couple, the house is a mix of the 2 cultures if it's the food, the languages, music, everything and we're living abroad so we're adding the country's culture too.

It's amazing how the USA is full of many cultures, but these cultures don't mix with each other, you're just divided, Gwen always tried to show that there is a different way, that we can all mix our cultures and enjoy what what each and every one of us have to share, from our history to the present.

Yes yes yes. There is so much to learn... its fascinating and even kinda hot to blend the cultures.  Living radically and exploring the others beliefs and traditions. 

[Bio 23,538]

Spoken like a true colonialist 

[JusKeepBreathin 19,311]

She absolutely loves the culture and she has had that love affair with the culture for over two decades. 

It's not like people who use a hairstyle once for an album and never again. 

[Franch Toast 25,616]

I think Gwen is extremely well-intentioned and has never acted with malice, but she's naïve about some things.  She's not very worldly, but I think that's part of her down-to-earth charm for many. 

- Tony's mom introduced her to the bindi, and gave her a bunch, and she thought they were beautiful & cool and started wearing them and kept on wearing them even after they broke up. (My hunch is because she was still in love with him even after he dumped her, she felt connected to him by wearing them.) The problem is some Indian American women saw this and felt like it was unfair because when they wore bindis, they were made fun of as being weird, but suddenly a white woman wore them and they became the fashion of the day. I honestly think Gwen wore them out of love for Tony and his culture, and when people criticize her for this, they fail to mention the fact that Tony's mom gave them to her and encouraged her to wear them. 

- In terms of the "Luxurious" video, my understanding is she was paying homage to her predominantly Latino high school in Anaheim. From what I have read, it was mainly non-Latinos people who had a problem with the video. 

- I think the Harajuku Girls phase was the most problematic, but not because of her borrowing from Japanese culture: It's because she turned four women of Japanese ancestry, one of whom had never even been to Japan, into props and made them accompany her everywhere and keep silent. (Even at the end of her concerts, she introduced everyone else by their real names, but them as Love, Angel, Music, and Baby.)  This in turn reinforced stereotypes of East Asian women being quiet and submissive, and given the paucity of Asian/Asian American representation in the US media, ticked off a lot of Asian Americans, most famously Margaret Cho. There's a Jonathan Ross interview where slimy Jonathan Ross even asks if the Harajuku Girls, who are sitting backstage, can give him handj*bs (which plays into the stereotype of East Asian women as sex workers), and Gwen clearly looks uncomfortable but instead of calling him out on his racism and misogyny, laughs it off and tells him he's naughty. (Yeah, it's not her fault he was a jerk, and I do cut her some slack because she was probably too shocked to know what to do and froze.) However, I will say that all four dancers have said glowing things about Gwen publicly, including on their social media accounts, praising her for teaching them professionalism and giving them opportunities such as walking their first red carpets, etc., and they kept on working with her. One even appeared in No Doubt's "Settle Down" video, and two of them in her "Let Me Reintroduce Myself" video. They seem to genuinely love and respect her. 

I think ultimately it comes down to the fact that Japanese people in Japan have no shortage of representation, so it doesn't really bother most of them, but for Asian Americans, women especially, some felt like they were being reduced to mascots based on stereotypes. Obviously, this wasn't Gwen's intention, but the reality is as a wealthy white woman, she has benefited and made tons of $$ off the image of Asian women. (She also has her Harajuku Lovers clothing line, perfumes, and a cartoon.) I also think she didn't do the best job of articulating her vision of what the Harajuku Girls represented to her. All of this said, I wish someone would sit down with her, preferably an Asian American woman writer, and explain to her why some people were upset, because I think Gwen, as much as I love, love, love her, just doesn't get it, and instead, she keeps resorting to defensiveness. 

- The "Looking Hot" video. That was a hot mess that never should've been green-lit, but that's on the whole band and their team, not Gwen specifically, and it totally effed up the reception of Push & Shove. 

- Cowboy culture. No one gets after her for this, but ever since she started dating Blake, she's adorned herself with fringe, cowgirl boots, and other attire and accessories that seem adjacent to "cowboy culture" or "country life." The thing is, some of these outfits are so over the top and I don't think are actually worn by people as everyday attire, and yet, I have never seen anyone accuse her of cultural appropriation over this, maybe because she's white and that's seen as white culture? To be clear, I don't think it's appropriation, and I don't think anyone should be mad at her for it; I'm just pointing out that people aren't in an uproar over her love affair with fringe and cowgirl boots. And yet, I see it similar to her wearing the bindi: She's head over heels in love with Blake, and she's trying to connect to what she perceives to be his culture, and he seems to think it's cute. She even wears a god-ass ugly cowgirl outfit for the finale of her Vegas residency to celebrate their love. I think her adoption of this fashion actually shows that her borrowings and reinterpretations of various cultures' clothing is an act of love and respect and that she has never meant to hurt anyone with this, and that her intentions are in fact the opposite. Of course, the power dynamics are very different, because at the end of the day, she's a white girl wearing clothes associated with white people, but I'm theorizing that this stems from the same impulse. 

However, her intentions don't change the fact that her actions have hurt some people; I wish she would acknowledge this more instead of acting so defensive. 

But a side note to all of this: No Doubt was pretty extraordinary not only for being one of the only woman-fronted bands in the 1990s, but also for having an Asian American bassist, and not only that, one of the best albums of the 90s was written about how much Gwen loved him and how he broke her heart. Considering the fact that Asian American men don't get a lot of attention in the media even now and often are portrayed as emasculated, this was ground-breaking back in the 90s. 

(Yes, I wrote you the sequel to Anna Karenina here, and I didn't even comment on her "Misery" performance or reggae and ska fashion.) 

 

[Lady Palutena 2,994]

This is the same woman who dressed up as a white Native American princess for a music video that she had removed from the net, right? 

[ProfessionalClown 10,416]

5 minutes ago, Lady Palutena said:

This is the same woman who dressed up as a white Native American princess for a music video that she had removed from the net, right? 

 

12 minutes ago, Bio said:

Spoken like a true colonialist 

Here come the annoying people who have no idea who Gwen Stefani is 

[Robo Ga 14,703]

9 minutes ago, Franch Toast said:

The "Looking Hot" video. That was a hot mess that never should've been green-lit, but that's on the whole band and their team, not Gwen specifically, and it totally effed up the reception of Push & Shove

What happened with this? I never saw the video 

[Bio 23,538]

Just now, ProfessionalClown said:

 

Here come the annoying people who have no idea who Gwen Stefani is 

Here comes the ignorant people who have no idea about anyone's life and say stuff they know nothing about