Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Era: Appropriation or Appreciation? 

Intent. That is the key word. What was her intent? I think it was love of the culture. I think that’s a good thing.

@@tidalboxer That's fine, but intent isn't all that matters, treating people with respect is arguably even more important. If I punch you in the face, does it help you to know that I was thinking loving thoughts while doing it? Of course not, our words and actions impact other people more than our secret thoughts and feelings do. No one would care if Gwen fell in love with the fashion and hired a Japanese stylist to dress her for the album, the problem is that she reduced human beings to silent props, and encouraged people to fetishize their race. It's the same as when Miley Cyrus hired black women to stand on stage during her twerking phase, and face their butts towards the audience so that we could watch Miley spank them. So bizarre! If you want to do the dance yourself, go ahead and do it. It's really adding insult to injury to borrow something from another culture and then hire people from that culture to stand there while you publicly mock them.

Now that you mentioned about Gwen saying to the interviewer to not talk to the Harajuku girls, I remember when they were all on an episode of TRL and they were just behind Gwen. They wouldn't say anything while one of the VJs was interviewing Gwen. I didn't get why they were acting like that, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. Now it's making more sense after watching this! I still like Gwen Stefani's music, but I have mixed feelings about her Harajuku Era.

i agree on what you've said about her doubling down plus the behavior she had with the girls she worked with but i feel it must be said that gwen has gone on record saying the bindi she wore was given to her by her then-boyfriend's mother who was indian.

Gurl no one is upset,white culture is boring so I dnt blame her for borrowing others.

Nah fam, wearing a bindi is cool to do. I am 100% European but I wore bindis when I was young as I have 2 half Indian half brothers. Their grandma, in which they call avva, would give me a bindi every time she came over. It is an instresting point though, knowing that she is appropriating Japanese cultures.

@@ILoveCatsSoMuch4352it was fine FOR YOU because you had a connection to the culture. not for any random person

LITERALLY. it's insane to me that she felt that she was 'literally japanese' and so in love with the culture n yet all that she could dress the LAMB girls with and sell were stereotypes and grossly misrepresented street style fashion...

" I remember a man saying he hated Harajuku kids because a decora girl kicked him in the balls..." what an icon she is

Sounds like you have a mom issue not a Gwen issue. Stop blaming 3rd parties for existing.

Keep crying about your imaginary story

​@@yellowmesh7821its still related,please be quiet

@@yeojinnie now how y'all gonna make Gwen Stefani the perpetrator of abuse for having a clothing line ,here. Please enlight me.

@@yellowmesh7821 did you even watch the video?

Speaking of the Philippines, I had a coworker who said that it was not an Asian country, and didn’t believe me when I looked it up to correct them. We have a mutual who is Filipino, he’s straight up Asian. Goes there for the holidays sometimes. And you’re telling me it’s not an Asian country? 😭

@@alexthehamster4564as a Filipino, I hate to break it to them, but I am Asian💀 I admit that the Philippines is interesting bc culturally, linguistically and geographically there is quite an overlap of Asia and Austronesia/Pacific Islands, not to mention our Hispanic colonization and ancestry so there is some debate to how “Asian” we are but I’d say my family and all the other Filipinos that Ik are all part of the consensus that we’re Asian, there is zero doubt abt it😭 Many Tagalog words are very similar to or are derived from southern Chinese dialect(s) and many Filipinos are Tsinoy (incl me), meaning of Chinese descent

Japan is a settler colonial state void of any culture. Harajuku is not culture its imported American Consumerism lol.

so black women wearing blonde wigs is racial appropriation?

Aww poor.. first world problems from america

@@trynagirl685yea cause it did pretty much start with native americans.

@@trynagirl685and no shit it’s american. we have many cultures in one spot. while other countries mostly have one race.

Hey sis, if you don’t mind, what’s the name of your brand? I’d love to support ❤️

@@shaani7978 I second that question!

You stopped being a fan because of this era? You're acting like she's racist 🙄 when that's not the case. She's allowed to like Japanese brands.

Are you ignorant? She has a song called Harajuku Girls that reference Hysteric Glamour, Yohji Yamamoto, Super Lovers, and Comme Des Garcons.

Basically ur no different from Gwen lmaoo

I always thought the makeup was cool bc it had some of the chola aesthetic, it’s popular here in Orange County, I just figured Gwen put a twist of her love for Orange County into their aesthetic…They looked good to me. Idk why things have to be so complicated these days lol

makeup was camp

@@nekomantix598 I'm specifically talking about the cheap Geisha look, where their make up enforces the harajuku girls to look like chickens 🤡🐔, example: rich girls 🙃🙃🙃

@@cutecatsara123making fun of geisha makeup is the opposite of what this video is trying to promote. Cultural appreciation. It’s not American enough for you and so that’s why you think it’s weird and ugly. But it is beautiful in a way you aren’t used to. You just don’t have enough of an eye to see beauty in all it’s unique forms. If only we were all exposed to different cultures as kids, it wouldn’t be so weird to us as adults.

Just say you hate Latinas

This is such a good take! Only think I’d like to add is I am not sure exactly how you’re defining loosely curled hair but their are definitely ethnic groups in Africa with looser hair textures that use their own types of braids who would still roughly fall under the term black for example Ethiopian/Eritrean Albasso braids or Tuareg braided hairstyles ❤️but a lot of these styles aren’t the ones being used by non-black people

Exactly! Appreciating a culture for me is knowing and accepting that some practices are closed and only for members of that community. I love the various forms of tattooing seen in Indigenous cultures around the world (Māori, Inuit, etc) and they’re beautiful art forms to me but I’d never get one myself because it’s not for me.

THANK YOU

​@@kennyb1588 Nuance is great. These are good examples. That being said, I always find it very interesting that there's almost always pushback against the closed-practiced associated with Black hair. The type of styles, admittedly, that this comment acknowledge it wasn't referring to.

exactly. the reason appropriation gets brushed over so much is because people have their own ideas of appreciation and will disregard how people of that culture feel

Ah I did not know that about the term cultural appropriation. When I looked into it on the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it says “Taking off in the 1980s, the term cultural appropriation was first used in academic spaces to discuss issues such as colonialism and the relationships between majority and minority groups.” but I am definitely going to look more into the 1992 article concerning Hoppi religious practices, thank you for sharing!

@@Panfila303 Since post-WW2, America and Japan have had an incredibly complicated relationship. To say nothing of the treatment of Japanese-Americans in America. It's a lot more nuanced than just "colonizer" and "colonized"

@@Panfila303 I think it depends on the case, like someone from a country that was colonized or impacted in an imperialistic way appropriating said coloziner's culture wouldn't have the same connotations

@@Panfila303 the quote says “AND the relationships between majority and minority groups” not just the issues of colonialism. Every country/culture has majority and minority groups no matter their history.

@@Panfila303 I’m so confused by your comment I don’t even know where to start. Black people are a minority in Asian countries and there is a lot of racism in that regard. A country doesn’t need to colonize or be colonized for there to be majority and minority groups, I literally said that already. The video already gave some insight into the difference between appropriation and appreciation, this is not a topic you can expect someone to explain in a comment section.

So, you must really hate Tokyo Joe's or California Pizza Kitchen then. How dare they trademark names when they aren't actually based there...what a ridiculous argument.

@@thedoublea147 OP is specifically talking about Gwen’s cultural appropriation, such as appropriating aspects such as black hairstyles like bantu knots, indigenous hairdresses, and a myriad of other incidents where she picked and chose parts of different cultures, and how her comments regarding Japanese culture are reflective that she hasn’t changed. Also- California Pizza Kitchen and Tokyo Joe’s is a different matter because fashion is specifically being discussed here, and Pizza Kitchen does not compare to cultural appropriation because Italians are not a minority group, so there is no power imbalance. On the subject back to Stefani, I don’t blame OP for feeling weird about Gwen Stefani trying to weasel her way into being the face of a Japanese substyle to specifically profit off of stereotypes- the issue arises especially when Stefani started claiming she was Japanese and making her way into Japanese spaces, and continually using the Harajuku Girls to reinforce these stereotypes of Japanese people, specifically Japanese women.

And why just weird about the white? Lol

I mean the culture behind it is racist 🤷

She literally says she got some clothing called Super Lovers. It’s in the song Harajuku Girls. Which is what inspired the name Harajuku Lovers. It’s sad that Japanese can appropriate Latino culture with the cholos and cholas and lowriders but when gwen does it she’s a “colonizer”. These dancers are even appropriating hip hop culture and no one is saying anything. Make it make sense. Stop being so racist. And yes people can be racist against white people. And Gwen as a Italian American has similarities with the Hispanics. We both went through discrimination against the real white Supremest.

​@@apollokain2542 Re: Gwen actually wearing brand clothes, that's fair, I didn't know that so I take that back. Otherwise, sorry maybe you misunderstood what I said -- I meant that trying to claim the Harajuku name (and by extension, the fashion subcultures that are associated with it) for herself, is colonizer behavior. It's absolutely not racist to point that out. She's allowed to wear the fashion and participate like everyone else, but trying to trademark it and acting like it's "her thing" is vile, and I stand by that.

@@Slithera I don’t think she’s trying to claim Harajuku as her own thing. The brand is called Harajuku Lovers, it’s meant to be a collaboration of her style mixed with the style that is popular in the Harajuku district. The harajuku style is a kawaii (cute) version of European style clothing which is another cultural exchange. The reason I say it’s racist is because it separates us from other people. There isn’t a culture in the world that doesn’t have roots from other places. The native Americans for example did that in exact same thing. The Aztecs would take over other villages, they would take what they had, mix it with their culture. They would take the people and either turn them to slaves or sacrifice them and they would even add their gods to their culture. It’s the same with Hello Kitty collaborating with American franchisees like Star Wars. Or the way Japanese took an American super here, Spider-Man and made him a Japanese super hero. And because of that they created the giant robot for him to fight in which was later used for the original Japanese power rangers which we then Americanized. Just like the song Harajuku Girls says , “a ping pong match between eastern and western, did you your inspiration in my latest collection”

@@apollokain2542 Did you not watch the video you're commenting on? It says very clearly that Gwen tried to legally trademark the name; not "Harajuku Lovers", her brand name, but "Harajuku" itself (26:07). Cultural exchange is a whole different topic and it applies to Japanese street fashion as well, you can very clearly see influences from outside of Japan in those fashion styles, and that's a wonderful thing! I'm not against that by any means. The things Gwen have done though, from acting like she "discovered" Harajuku (she did not), to her treatment of her dancers, to now claiming that she's supposedly Japanese -- All of it is beyond the pale, and that's not the same as cultural exchange. She may not mean any harm, but it seems like she refuses to listen to people who point out the harm in her actions and instead doubles down on them. I'll also point out, in case you missed this in the video as well: The actual Harajuku kids aren't very thrilled about Gwen's actions either (26:45)

@@Slithera yeah I did and I think the whole thing is bull s*t. She made the brand for the fans like merch. And so what if she wanted to brand the name harajuku. I think it’s dumb to think she could completely own the name for her brand but she’s a HUMAN. And why do y’all think she thinks she’s really Japanese. She didn’t mean that literally. It’s just a way of showing how she can relate to the culture. Which by the way has no real historic significance other than teens dressing up in outrages fashion. And I’m sure the kids are crying on the streets because some American artist is capitalizing on a brand that is inspired by a district in Japan. As for the dancers if they were treated so badly I’m sure they would’ve commented by know how Gwen forced them against their will to work for her. Once again I’m not complaining that there are Japanese who literally consider themselves cholos and cholas (same as her saying she’s Japanese) selling little homie figurines and making low riders and making music inspired but artist like SPM. I LOVE it because we’re all HUMAN. Cultural appropriation is literally racism because all cultures have roots from everywhere. It just looks different now because of social media. You can actually see cultures slowly crashing into each other.

I have all the wicked style ones 😆 the bottles really are cute, they're all empty but I still have the dolls

Those perfumes always stood out to me whenever I was at my aunt's house, I always thought they were toys for adults and I didn't even know the blonde one was Gwen Stefani (who I'm a fan of her music now), I actually thought that was Alice from Alice in Wonderland omg!!

Right! I had the G one and I actually hated the scent, it smelled like sunscreen, but I loved the cute little figurine.

Thank you so much!! 💖

You took her statement literally. It's more of a feeling rather than truth. Also, it's a popular belief for Americans to think Japan is more Westernized when, in reality, Japan is more developed and modern now. Japan is still Japan. You can collect Sanrio and take part in Japanese culture; Hello Kitty is a Japanese pop culture.

@@martialspiritwarrior Oh so now it's the viewers's fault that she didn't even word herself properly?, dude, even as a "feeling", that's still a wrong thing to think. You can like Harujuku fashion, hell, you can participate in it with absolutely no issues and will receive only support from those in the community, but that's the *subculture* itself, something that's meant to be shared. But trying to identify yourself as a different ethnicity for the sake of...what exactly?, looking exactly like those who created the subculture? (wich again, would mean that you consider the ethnicity more of an accessory, like op said)🧍🏻‍♀️

@@martialspiritwarrior I understand that she didn’t mean it literally, but it is still a very disrespectful and ignorant thing to say, even if it is just a feeling. Also I don’t know where I implied that Japan isn’t modernized. I’m saying that collecting Sanrio is perfectly acceptable, and anyone can partake in it. The problem arises when someone extends that into wanting to butt their way into being part of an ethnicity that they are not because of it.

@Annier Technically speaking, people are partly to blame. I blame media or Allure Maganize for misleading people. "I desperately wanted that little perfume bottle on my dresser because it made me feel seen in a way that I never did in fashion or beauty or really any mainstream media or marketing. I honestly didn't question, or even really register, that the woman behind this Asian representation was white." The interviewer is self-absorbed, projecting Gwen Stefani as this white woman who is only taking advantage of Japanese/Japanese American women. Intellectualizing Gwen's whiteness to further divide us. Elvis Presley received both praise and backlash for his impact in music and culture. He wore zoot suits (worn by minorities' group and racistly seen as intimidating/gang affiliated by high class white Americans) and was influenced by the music and dance of Black Americans. He is titled "King of Rock and Roll,"-not because he pioneered it, not because he popularized it, not because he was the first white man to do it-because he made rock n roll acceptable to white folks. He is just one king among kings. The word "stole" is incorrect when Black American culture was actually embraced, not stolen. Culture is meant to be shared. MARINA is a Welsh singer and songwriter who made an American theme music video, Hollywood. Nobody, I mean no Americans cared about the American accessories, props, or whatever. I am not White, but I am American, and I love Marina for her obsession with America, but she also criticizes the misconceptions about America. Gwen Stefani has dyslexia. I just want to talk about my own personal experience for a moment when Gwen made the statement "I'm Japanese," whether that is fabricated or not. I said to a black woman, "I'm black," even though I'm not. I am related to black families, but yes, that does not mean I'm black. I said what I said because I have shared their culture. So when Gwen calls herself Japanese, she finds Japanese culture sentimental. It's totally wrong to say, I think, but I also feel that people don't need to be black to speak like them. I've been accused as a child of acting black, but I learned through my relatives. Look at Ariana Grande, who gets called out for sounding and looking black. People tend to act by who they are raised, look up to, and hang with. Gwen Stefani did not mean she is Japanese literally. She expressed herself: "The music, the way the girls wore their makeup, the clothes they wore, that was my identity," she said. "Even though I'm an Italian American - Irish or whatever mutt that I am - that's who I became because those were my people, right?" Gwen Stefani isn't pretending to be Japanese nor is she claiming her ethnicity to be Japanese. She is obsessed with their culture: music, makeup, and clothes. She identifies with the Harajuku girls, Japanese girls with wicked fashion. What she said may have been misconceive, but I feel there is no need for her to explain herself when she made it clear that she loves Japanese culture, or the subculture of Harajuku fashion. Even with her dylesxia, Gwen is a capable and an empathic human being. "If we didn't buy and sell and trade our cultures in, we wouldn't have so much beauty, you know? We learn from each other, we share from each other, we grow from each other. And all these rules are just dividing us more and more." -Gwen Stefani

@Emma Jauernig I added that statement about how Americans have this wild belief that Japan is Westernized because people here are prideful, I think. Modernization isn't the main point. The main point is that Westernization does not equal modernization. I feel people here are condescending to Japanese and other nationalities in general. I really haven't seen Americans getting hurt about other countries accessorizing American culture. I wouldn't find it offensive if a Japanese citizen expresses oneself with "Oh my God. I am American. I really am, you know?" because it's one way of embracing a different culture. And guess what? America wouldn't care. They only care to patronize other minorities and shame White people. Other countries are obsessed with and fantasies about America. Perhaps they wish to identify as American, but no, that does not mean they are proclaiming to be white, black, or a different color. Race: characteristics of one's hair color, eye color, skin color. Ethnicity: one's ancestory and culture. It bugs me that biological gender is shallow, yet biological ethnicity should remain as is. I, personally, don't see myself as nonbinary. I'm he/him. I believe fashion can be interchangeable. There are people who don't see themselves as their assigned gender or the other gender. But I feel that it's society rules to separate male from females, what makes you a guy, or what makes you a woman that alienates people. Nonbinary people don't need to look androgynous to be nonbinary, just like you don't need to look a certain way for your ethnicity. That's race. When you're in Japan, you have to adopt their culture. You can't just walk around with shoes in a house or be loud in public. You have to be both American and Japanese. There are people who become disconnected with their biological ethnicity that their nationality then becomes their culture. Both gender and ethnicity are social constructs.

Same. I only listen to a few of her songs (both solo and No Doubt era) every now and then, and I used to read people's comments saying "this is the era where she kept harajuku girls as pets" and I thought they were joking/exaggerating until I watched this vid. Like, yeah they were getting paid and they all had a positive experience doing it, but still.

It isn't problematic. People just like to whine.

Me neither. And I find usually the offended are white, affluent females for some reason.

really? cause i see mostly people of THAT specific group talking about it and ppl like you dismissing it.

​@maddyocean5948 honestly this is fact. People need to realize every human has a different opinion and because 3 or 5 people of said culture dismiss it, doesn't necessarily make it okay especially when many of the same culture didn't dismiss it.

⁠@@aviemoreno4647Weren’t they welcoming her?

i love how you can tell which people in this comment section stopped watching the video immediately after hearing that two of the dancers weren't personally bothered by it. also... is the "white, affluent female" getting offended on someone else's behalf in the room with us right now? because it sure seemed to me like all the opinions shown in the video were from people who are actually asian and expressing their genuine, personal discomfort with the whole ordeal.

Yes exactly, my mother and I are Japanese and we have no problem with her and we both love her

I agree so so much! Couldn't have worded it better. As a white american woman who has been a part of the gyaru subculture for quite a while now I always get odd comments like "omg! I love gyaru too! It's so fun being japanese"....from other white people. The difference between being a part of a subculture and identifying with it isn't a thin line it's quite an obvious one actually so it's odd that people can't tell the difference.

@ᧁ͓̽᥊͓̽ƽ͓̽ꫝ͓̽♥️ზ͓̽᥊͓̽ñ͓̽ñ͓̽į͓̽ ok lol well they exist

Oh my gosh I remember Crayon Pop!! The Bar Bar Bar dance trended on tik tok for a little bit, I want to try it with a group of friends one day 😊💖

I think they were an opening act for her concerts not an entourage

@@cybrgrl this bitch did not just say ‘it trended on tiktok’ girl that song came out way before tiktok existed

@@twistedbliss58 haha yes i am aware that it came out a long time ago (i've personally been listening to k-pop casually since around the time that the wonder girls were really popular worldwide like when "nobody" was released), i'm just saying that it trended on tik tok recently which is cool to see that young people are still into the song because it's definitely a classic

@1t5n4tur4l Yeah, especially considering how the other team didn't want to play in the first place.

She’s not necessarily a horrible person though keep that in mind! :D

@@alliexcx5576 ion know, racism sounds pretty bad to me.

@@jubileehoney3269 I know it's not my place to say if it's racism or not, I just wanna say that at the time it was normalized and people didn't have the information we have today, she literally was thinking she was doing something good showing Harajuku fashion and culture to America

@@finnrogue9435 Racism and cultural appropriation has never been truly normal, I remember people saying that they were shocked at it, even in those times. I mean even if it was, to this day she still will die on the hill of thinking what she did was completely okay. Even at Japanese people telling her what she did was wrong, she's shown she does not care.

Same here

Except 2 of them are Japanese

ikr im doing hw while watching this so i didnt pay attention as much but when i heard shinee i stopped doing my work lol

yes! she made some of red velvet's best choreos and has an incredible careerit's crazy she was a "doll" for gwen stefani aesthetic.

It comes off to me like someone who can’t get access to something they want naturally so they buy their way in and pretend they got it authentically.

Except there was no contract saying they had to be silent. There are videos of them speaking and having a good time with Gwen and others during this era. Maybe you shouldn't just blindly believe bs articles and take 5 minutes to actually do some research as these videos and postings are readily available.

like when i saw their accomplishments and who they worked with i was surprised ! why are you standing behind a 5 hit wonder singer with all of those things on your resume ?

But nobody is talking about how they were appropriating black hairstyles?

The girls in my year in our school were made to wear bindi when I was 7, but it wasn't a proper wedding bindi; it was the kids one. I can't figure if it was wrong or not, because it was when we were learning about India for a week and trying to participate. If the difference is intention, then it's definitely appreciation, but I think that when looking at it blindly, it looks like appropriation.

don't apologize its not your fault babes

Like Prince Harry said when you know better, you do better..I wish Gwen would take that advice..

You people are delusional. Stop using problematic, so cringe.