Gwen Stefani dropped her comeback song, “Baby Don’t Lie” today, and according to Pharrell (the unofficial arbiter of hits du jour), the follow-up album is on “another level.” And that’s all well and good, but before we embrace Stefani as a comeback queen, we should pause to remember that she perpetuated some extremely racist stereotypes when she debuted her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. 10 years ago.
After dropping the album, Stefani used four backup dancers known as the “Harajuku girls” in all her performances and as an entourage offstage. They followed her everywhere and were reportedly contractually obligated to only speak Japanese in public. She renamed them — as if they were pets — “Love,” “Angel,” “Music” and “Baby” after her album title. As you can see in the video for the song “Harajuku Girls” above the women are basically puppets. The lyrics of her actual songs aren’t much better. In “Harajuku Girls,” Stefani calls their culture, “A Ping-Pong match between Eastern and Western.”
Last year, Miley Cyrus’ use of twerking black backup dancers at the Video Music Awards launched 1,000 think pieces on whether Cyrus was playing on black stereotypes to prove that she was now a rebel. Critics have also blasted Katy Perry for dressing up like a geisha with makeup that made her eyes look slanted during the 2013 American Music Awards. Earlier this year, Avril Lavigne released an extremely racist music video for “Hello Kitty.” Stefani’s behavior a decade ago set the precedent.
Stefani has not issued any such apology for her Harajuku girls. Maybe it’s time she does.
Let's hope she doesn't try anything like that today or else the social justice warriors of every ethnicity but the ones who should be offended will have her head.
This whole appropriating other cultures or racial this or that is being blown OTT. As someone who is part-Asian, I've no problem with the Harajuku Girls or the Hello Kitty or the Geisha or any of that.
If whites wanna act like ninjas or dress like a monk, I've no problem. I did have a problem with Miley making fun of Asians posing with slanted eyes, but unless they're making fun or being rude, then I've no problem.
That isn't racism, those stereotypes existed before she did that. That's like saying putting a pink blossom tree in a video about Japan is racist. It's not.
It's as logical as saying that wearing a beret is rude to French people.
The article is correct and defending the Harajuku Girls concept isn't exactly advisable, but it would have been more productive to bring this to everyone's attention when it was actually happening. Right now it seems to have very little purpose given that she's already received heat for her cultural appropriation and her influence on stereotyping.
Still love her tho