At the time, comedian Margaret Cho compared the Harajuku girls to blackface and lamented how few portrayals of Asian culture there are in popular culture:. Even though to me, a Japanese schoolgirl uniform is kind of like blackface, I am just in acceptance over it, because something is better than nothing. Her obsession with the culture walks a very thin line between admiration and appropriation. Critics have also blasted Katy Perry for dressing up like a geisha with makeup that made her eyes look slanted during the American Music Awards.
In it, the very white Stefani dressed up like a Native American. Stefani, who once dated fellow No Doubt bandmate Tony Kanal, who is of Indian descent, was seen in the group's music videos sporting the cultural symbol as a part of her distinct look.
After informally splitting with No Doubt in the early s, Stefani embarked on a fascinating solo run that catapulted the singer into superstardom. Deviating from her traditional rock origin, Stefani would spend the next few years experimenting with her sound and her ever-changing look. In , the singer released her debut album Love. Flirting with synth pop, rock, and hip-hop, the album produced Stefani's first and only U. No stranger to pulling inspiration from minority cultures and replicating their likeness for profit, Stefani's harmful antics were able to evade judgment, in part, because it was before "cultural appropriation" became a national buzzword and also because we lacked today's social media platforms that ignite public conversation.
Despite the album debuting at No. The group made numerous appearances in Stefani's videos and ultimately became a powerful marketing tool throughout her solo run. The second single, " Rich Girl " featuring Eve showed the girls once again being used as props to push Stefani's agenda of cultural relevance.
In a Salon article about the Harajuku Girls , writer Mihi Ahn says, "Stefani fawns over harajuku style in her lyrics, but her appropriation of this subculture makes about as much sense as the Gap selling Anarchy T-shirts; she's swallowed a subversive youth culture in Japan and barfed up another image of submissive giggling Asian women. Unfortunately, her fetishization didn't stop there. Miranda Lambert has reason to dislike Gwen Stefani , even if it is more emotional than logical.
Lambert was once married to Blake Shelton , the country star who judges "The Voice" with Gwen Stefani and has been romantically linked to her since , the same year he and Lambert divorced.
The first time a reporter asked Lambert about Stefani after she began dating Shelton, Lambert said she simply hung up the phone. In , when Lambert won album of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards, she used her acceptance speech to speak about her "heartbreak.
A source close to Stefani claimed that she felt there was no "need to be living in the past. By , it seemed whatever issues the two women had with each other had been solved, despite ongoing rumors.
Although Gossip Cop reported that Lambert and Shelton's divorce was somewhat "contentious," any grudge Lambert still holds is reportedly simply directed at her ex, and has nothing to do with Stefani. Per the magazine, "everyone's staying polite when they're forced to be in the same room.
From wearing bindis to Native American headdresses , Gwen Stefani's legacy with cultural appropriation has been deemed problematic, to say the least. And none more so than the video for her mega-hit, " Hollaback Girl ," which included four Japanese backup dancers known as the Harajuku Girls. Salon had this to say in "Stefani fawns over harajuku style in her lyrics, but her appropriation of this subculture makes about as much sense as the Gap selling Anarchy T-shirts; she's swallowed a subversive youth culture in Japan and barfed up another image of submissive giggling Asian women.
Actor and comedian Margaret Cho also had some choice words for the pop star in a blog entry. I mean, racial stereotypes are really cute sometimes, and I don't want to bum everyone out by pointing out the minstrel show," she wrote of Stefani's use of the Harajuku Girls.
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