Breck C. sent us this link to a collection of photographs of Harajuku Girls. Harajuku is a style for teenagers in a region of Japan (here is the wikipedia entry). I can’t think of a way to describe them that does them justice, so here are some pictures (found here, here, here and here):
In 2004, Gwen Stefani began touring with four women posing as Japanese Harajuku girls. Stefani’s Harajuku Girls serve as her entourage and back-up dancers. Here she is with four (Japanese?) women that she hires to be her Harajuku Girls (found here and here):
In the comments, Inky points out that Stefani says this about them in her song, Rich Girl:
I’d get me four Harajuku girls to
Inspire me and they’d come to my rescue
I’d dress them wicked, I’d give them names
Love, Angel, Music, Baby
Hurry up and come and save me
Stefani also has a Harajuku Lovers clothing line and a series of perfumes, one for her, and one for each Harajuku Girl:
I think that Stefani’s use of Asian women as props (they may or may not be Japanese) fetishizes Asian women and reinforces white privilege. The Harajuku Girls serve as contrast to Stefani’s performance of ideal white femininity. It makes me think of both this poster on colonial-era travel and this fashion spread.
Yet, Stefani’s been at this for four years and I can’t remember hearing any objections to her Harajuku Girls, even in feminist and anti-racist alternative media. Further, if her fashion line, perfume, and continued employment of the Harajuku Girls are any indication, people seem to think the whole thing is awesome. In the meantime, I bet she’s making bank on her clothing line and perfume. Where’s that money going?
Do you think my reading is fair?
And, if so, why do you think there’s been so little outcry?
For good measure, here she is performing with her “Girls”:
In our comments, SG asks that we include the following clarification:
This article is really misrepresenting a whole fashion scene and I would like to ask that you correct it- It is just perpetuating the idiocy and ignorance surrounding these styles. “Harajuku is a style for teenagers in a region of Japan”. “Harajuku style” Is a term coined by western media because they are too ignorant to actually research the names of these actual styles. Harajuku is not a style. It is a location. The females you have pictured are in Decora (and two in Visual Kei). The only “harajuku style” that exists is the fictional one made up by Gwen Stefani and the western media.
Thanks SG.
25 Comments
This has been driving me crazy for ages. I think that if Gwen Stefani were a man, there would have been a huge outcry but as a woman, she’s able to pass it off as “cute.”
I agree with you that she uses these women and the idea of these women as little more than accessories. I also really hate the way she calls them ‘girls.’ I hate when grown women are referred to as girls because it is very dismissive. In this case, it also plays into the submissive Asian women idea. I heard a rumor (not sure if it’s true, though. Tried to look it up, but no luck) that they were not allowed to talk, or they were not allowed to speak English, or something.
I also think that Stefani’s version of Harajuku has little resemblance to the real thing, other than that the women wearing the Harajuku style are Asian. Harajuku is about individuality and originality, and the way she has all four wearing the same outfit goes against that.
Here’s what Margaret Cho had to say about it when Stefani brought out her latest fashion accessories:
“I want to like them, and I want to think they are great, but I am not sure if I can. I mean, racial stereotypes are really cute sometimes, and I don’t want to bum everyone out by pointing out the minstrel show. I think it is totally acceptable to enjoy the Harajuku girls, because there are not that many other Asian people out there in the media really, so we have to take whatever we can get. Amos ‘n Andy had lots of fans, didn’t they? At least it is a measure of visibility, which is much better than invisibility. I am so sick of not existing, that I would settle for following any white person around with an umbrella just so I could say I was there.”
I’m not Asian, but I can totally see her point. There are not many Asian people in American media.
And by the way, according to the Wikipedia page about Stefani’s Harajuku Girls, all four are Japanese.
For what is worth, what Western people mean when they talk about “Harajuku style” is the decora/ oshare kei fashions that used to be featured in FRUiTS magazine via the Phaidon Press collection of photographs. Yoyoji Park in Harajuku, for example, is where you find the gothic/ sweet/ punk/ whatever lolitas and visual kei cosplayers on Sundays.
(Condensed glossary: Decora/ oshare is the fashion style for which you dress as a six year old carrying all her collection of Disney pouches and handbags at once. Lolita is mostly dressing as a Victorian porcelain doll or a Little House on the Prairie extra with as many frills and lace as you can get away with it. Visual kei is a music subgenre where the musicians dress in an extremely *interesting*, androgynous way. Cosplaying/ costume playing is dressing as your favourite anime character or recreating the outfit of a musician you’re a fan of.)
Gwen Stefani is an egregious case of Not Getting It. I don’t recall her being mentioned in a lolita comm I’m member of in LiveJournal and not being derided for being such a pathetic poser.
By the way, tying with the African-themed clothing by American Apparel post from a while ago, these last days I’ve been seeing all over my blog feeds posts about Wafrica, a line of kimono fabrics inspired by African patterns made by a Cameroon-born designer.
thanks, kim for posting that. i boycott hgwen stefani’s music since she started this minstrel show, as cho calls it.
if anyone wants to read the original blog it is here:
http://www.margaretcho.com/blog/2005/10/31/harajuku-girls.html
then see gwen’s ridiculous response to her in EW:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1562569_4,00.html
But not everyone warmed to Stefani’s ”whole fashion thing” — in particular, the showcasing of her admiration for Tokyo trendsetters via an entourage of four Japanese women that she called the Harajuku Girls. The Girls silently accompanied her on photo shoots and to public appearances, and subsequently appeared on her tour. Stefani regarded the Girls, all of whom looked as if they had come straight off the streets of the capital city’s hip Harajuku district, as a figment of her imagination brought to life in a culturally positive manner. But last year, Korean-American comedian Margaret Cho publicly decried them as ”a minstrel show.”
”She didn’t do her research!” spits Stefani, who says she’s been a fan of Japan and its mix-and-match fashion sense since first visiting the country with No Doubt in the mid-’90s. ”The truth is that I basically was saying how great that culture is. It pisses me off that [Cho] would not do the research and then talk out like that. It’s just so embarrassing for her. The Harajuku Girls is an art project. It’s fun!” (Cho told EW via e-mail, ”I absolutely agree! I didn’t do any research! I realize the Harajuku Girls rule!!! How embarrassing for me!!! I was just jealous that I didn’t get to be one… I dance really good!!!”)
Stefani continues: ”I was surprised how racist everybody was about them. Especially when I came over here and they’d make all these jokes, like Jonathan Ross.” Ross, a British TV host, asked Stefani whether an ”imaginary hand job” from one of her ”imaginary” dancers would count as cheating on his wife. Stefani responds, ”Everybody’s making jokes about Japanese girls and the stereotypes. I had no idea [I'd be] walking into that.”
I do remember several years ago hearing the Harajuku girls being referred to as Stefani’s “pet Asians” (this was a dig at Stefani, not the women).
I want to say I’ve seen some commentary in Bitch magazine, but in general, yeah, the silence has been deafening.
I’ve been trying to comment on this for about an hour, but every comment just gets sucked into the void… perhaps they have been too long. (Or maybe this post has some glitch and then they will all show up at once, in which case - sorry!)
Anyway, I totally agree on the interpretation, but don’t agree that there was no coverage. I prepared a list of newspapers and blogs that covered this controversy (NYT, Boston Herald, Toronto Star, Salon, Entertainment Weekly) with links, but I can’t seem to post it. In any case, a very brief google search should illustrate that it is not fair to say that no one covered this issue, “even in feminist and anti-racist alternative media” - its just that the coverage is from 2005 and 2006. I can find over a dozen references in about three minutes.
Brief list of articles on the subject:
- Toronto Star article from October 2005 [no link]
- Boston Herald column from January 2007 [no link]
- Entertainment Weekly coverage of Margaret Cho’s criticism [http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2005/11/chos_not_laughi.html]
- Entertainment Weekly interview with Stefani that addresses the controversy:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1562569_4,00.html
- Salon article from 2005 [http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2005/04/09/geisha/index.html]
- Seattle Times article that mentions the controversy in November 2005 [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2002629786_gwen18.html]
- New York Times article that mentions, but does not elaborate on, the controversy in June 2005 [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/magazine/19CONSUMED.html?_r=1]
- Japan Inc. article from 2005 [http://www.japaninc.com/article.php?articleID=1454]
Blogs that covered this issue:
http://www.racialicious.com/2006/11/30/gwen-stefani-everyone-else-is-racist-not-me/
http://americansongbook.blogs.com/american_black/2005/06/speaking_japane.html
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/06/harajuku_girls
http://www.thefighting44s.com/archives/2005/11/25/gwens-girl-trouble/
http://alivefromnewyork.blogspot.com/2006/12/gwen-stefani-racist.html
http://popdirt.com/new-doubt-is-gwen-stefanis-harajuku-obsession-offensive/43154/
Credit where credit is due!
I saw something about this in “Bitch” magazine a few years ago - can’t find it on their website, but I know that’s where it was. I do agree with your reading of it, and with Margaret Cho’s very eloquent takedown.
This has bothered me for years now!
The whole idea is just extremely troubling. I have always been particularly upset by the fact that Stefani “renamed” the women. They are known only as “Love,” “Angel,” “Music,” and “Baby.”
A few years back I was curious about their identities–were they Japanese pop-stars maybe with their own albums? I could not for the life of me find their real names or anything about them other than as Stefani’s “group.” They way they are utilized is as if they are simply props, and it makes me sick.
Good thorough work here, the many images especially. Regarding the “silence” on Stefani’s racism, I blogged about it awhile back, for what it’s worth, and included a pretty spot-on MadTV satire of her Japanophilia.
This reference to them in the song “Rich Girl” (implying that she’s bought the women) is what has always bothered me the most:
“I’d get me four Harajuku girls to
Inspire me and they’d come to my rescue
I’d dress them wicked, I’d give them names
Love, Angel, Music, Baby
Hurry up and come and save me”
They’re pets. Pets to dress up and name.
This is pretty gross. I’d stopped paying attention to Gwen Stefani and her ilk, but how did I miss this? It’s like they’re not even people, but props.
First off, I would say that this is just an extension of pop musicians co-opting “racial” influences and using them as a marketing ploy. I’m sure you could find several examples, but some that come to mind would be Madonna using “Latin” music, Vanilla Ice, Paul Simon using South African drum and accapella groups. I don’t know that these examples imply the same level of “ownership” but the use of cultural “window dressing” is not unprecedented in pop music.
Futhermore, Gwen Stefani’s entire album is sort of a disgusting cultural hijaking. Not only of the asian ‘dolls” she poses with but the sort of faux rap goddess she impersonates throughout the CD. There are a lot of elements cribbed directly from black musicians, and most of these incorporate the same sort of ethnicities as “window dressing”. I never get the feeling that Stefani is so much “collaborating” with the Eve or Pharrell on her songs as posing with these artists, aligning her own personal brand with their unique cultural identities.
Even before this album, in her No Doubt days, Stefani was sort of seen by individuals in the “scene” as co opting the two-tone / punk ethos and repackaging it as more consumable.
Gwen’s use of Harajuku girls is just a clever marketing angle. She’s co-opting Japan’s greatest export “cuteness” and making it more palatable for little white girls in the US. It’s an extension of kinds of Japanese exports such as Hello Kitty because much like Sanrio’s anthropomorphic characters, the Harajuku “characters” are asian women who have been bowlderized to the point that appeal to people who want to consume “asian-ness” without having to sift through the cultural “odor” of products which might be produced by an individual from Japan for an individual from Japan. I mean, just looking at the pictures you’ve posted, it’s pretty clear to me that a girl in America wearing “harajuku” wouldn’t necessarily pass for a “harajuku girl” anymore than a guy in a green bowler hat and vest would pass for the Mayor of Dublin.
the Harajuku “characters” are asian women who have been bowlderized to the point that appeal to people who want to consume “asian-ness” without having to sift through the cultural “odor” of products which might be produced by an individual from Japan for an individual from Japan.
Speaking of which, this site has the Oricon charts, the Japanese top 40 list. You can click on any song to watch the music video. Compare
http://www.jpopasia.com/charts/
Kathy, their wiki article has their real names and a little bit of background.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harajuku_Girls
Thank you all so much for all your insightful and information-full comments! I learned a lot!
Hey, just wanted to point out that you can find out their names here, assuming the article is accurate. Three were born in Japan, one was born in LA (of Japanese descent). And I too think it’s creepy and offensive.
Refering to what Kim said about the girls talking. They are allowed to speak in the general sense. I’ve included some interviews that were done with them BUT I remember an interview that Gwen Stefani did with Much Music (Canada’s MTV) and she specifically told the interviewer that they should not speak to the “girls”. It was squicky.
This is Jennifer or “Love” she’s actually American but of Japanese heritage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMBgkyZLnsY
The other three are dubbed in English, badly. Which is interesting because two of them have been living in the states for quite a long time before Gwen found them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB8hUwtSfYc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzkEUQPRijM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYT146EFeiA
In fact here is Rino Nakasone (”Music”) speaking absolutely perfect English while teaching a dance class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3PmSNIGWaM
Hmmmm I listened to this song for the first time a year or so ago and was just generally impressed that there was an American artist interested in different cultures.
Now that I’ve seen this post and that video I’ve learned two things: Gwen Stephanie can’t dance very well.. and the “girls” are definitely a freak show. Cho got it right.
I thought I was going crazy and that no one else could see how vile a display this was!! woooh Im not alone lol.
Stefani has spent her whole life conventionalising and commercialising genres and styles such as skater, punk, reggae, ska etc etc, and it’s wrong because no one can see that truely she has no real identity or style, they think she’s really unique whereas she’s just a use and chooser of other peoples cultures. I’m British…I love Manga, Anime and Harajuku styles of clothing BUT I dont make a decision to put on a show and totally kill someone elses culture to sell records or make a race appear ‘cute’ to appeal to a market..its creepy.
When she hops over to India, grabs a bindi and a sari and hires four new minstrels to jump around with, I’ll be personally offended, Margaret Cho rules for pointing this out as the distasteful sham that it is.
**DAMN Just remembered shes already done the whole bindi thing.
what this seems like to me is that everyone is bored and wants to make something contraversial. really they are just back up dancers and gwen stefani is showing people a different culture i dont think she thought oh lets annoy everyone with 4 japanese dancers you people are being racist! >:(
I’m sorry, but this has been killing me. This article is really misrepresenting a whole fashion scene and I would like to ask that you correct it- It is just perpetuating the idiocy and ignorance surrounding these styles. “Harajuku is a style for teenagers in a region of Japan”. “Harajuku style” Is a term coined by western media because they are too ignorant to actually research the names of these actual styles. Harajuku is not a style. It is a location. The females you have pictured are in Decora (and two in Visual Kei). The only “harajuku style” that exists is the fictional one made up by Gwen Stefani and the western media. Please fix this.
SG,
I added your comment to the main post. Thanks for clarifying.