I am quite sure the girls are getting paid accordingly... Shoot, I'd follow Gwen around and pretend I don't exist for less then they are probably doing it for..

(Sorry...I am a Gwen fan...)

There's also an article in the new issue of Bitch that deals with the "Gwen's harajuku girls" topic. I couldn't find it posted online, but the magazine's website is www.bitchmagazine.com.

well, thank goodness they get paid. but let's imagine they didn't.

would the optics (not to mention the politics) still be ok? from where i stand (and as fun as i think stefani's music is) all i see is a rich powerful white woman accessorized by silent asian women. what's the difference between this and hip hop artists who use black female bodies to decorate their shows?

it's still women as objects.

I agree with ding. I am actually puzzled by the influx of female performers surrounding themselves with female accessories (Madonna and Gwen come to mind). I mean, at least if it was "man candy" I could understand - in a twisted way, but this - what's up with that?

MiHi Ahn's article is shrill.

Stefani and the Harajuku girls are doing performance art. These "silent" women are not depicted as "pets" or weak - they are strong and creative.

The newest Stefani video featuring the Harajuku girls - "Hollerback" (or "Hollaback") portrays precisely what Asian-American advocates have been demanding from the media for years - the entire video consists of a high school peopled by non-sexualized Harajuku girls.

Free the Gwenihana Four! Visit the FTG4 website to show your support and download posters or buy t-shirts and mugs.

I'm a fan of Gwen's, but the harajuku thing seriously bothers me. The girls are quite Gwen's literally accessories, just like a purse or a necklace. In one of her songs she says of the harajuku girls "I dress them up...I give them names..." You don't do that with a person. You do that with a dog or some other pet. This just seems like an unfortunate trend with some white artists -- pimping out their image by 'exoticizing' it through association with other races and/or nationalities. The harajuku girls are quite obviously the newest incarnation of the 'giggling geisha' stereotype. I don't think it's cool or trendy, or even needed - she's obviously talented, so why the blatant tokenism/racial stereotyping?

"I dress them up...I give them names..."

Hmm, she dresses them in her own fashion line, pays them, then gives them AMERICAN names. I don't see a problem. Coutre fashion is not cheap and I am sure they are paid well.

I don't know if you have been overseas to Asia but the cool thing to do there is to recieve an American name from an American. When I taught in China and Taiwan I named pleanty of people.

Racial stereotyping? Popularizing the Japanese culture with music and fashion is not stereotyping. Even if it was, steretyping exists because there is a common belief that what is presented is true.

I would not have looked up "Harajuku" had I not heard the cd or saw the video. Gwen has always been on the cutting edge of fashion and music. It is no surprise that with the rise of Japanese culture awareness in the US with teens and young adults that an artist as forward thinking as Gwen has come out with music like this.

Women as objects, men as objects, who cares? People would complain either way. It is the entertainment industry that perpetuates this type of visualization. If people weren't buying it, it would have faded away with bell-bottoms! If you don't like it don't listen.

my 2 cents.

I am kind of a Gwen fan but her change of genre is kinda weird. It doesn't seem to suit her, or I'm just not used to it.

Anyway...WHO SAYS it's cool in ASIA to be given AMERICAN names. No offence intended but I am Asian and I don't want an American name. If you're talking about ENGLISH names I don't really mind. But I actually know a lot of people who don't mind NOT having an "American" name. And I don't think all of Asia is into that thing. This kind of interests in American names thing would be individual.

I think the harajuku girls are individual in their own way. Perhaps they only do this for money but why must they "bow" down to her, she's not some white goddess.

I am a Gwen fan and find her new style interesting. I did like the old style a little better, but the new stuff is ok.

VoodooOrange's comments about being Asian and given American names. You speak for yourself! I am Asian and have an American name. BTW, there are a lot of American names originate from England. What's your dilio?

Harajuku girls, they wouldn't be there with Gwen unless they wanted to. I don't think a gun was stuck to their heads or they were forced to be performers with Gwen. All this reading between the lines into those performers is pretty ridiculous.

Ok quite bitching about it! These girls (asian, black, or white) make a hell of a lot more money than us, they obviously wanted to do it and Hey, they're good at it! Being a feminist doesn't mean you have to wear camoflage and have bad hair and makeup!! (That's called the Army!)

who said anything about feminists having to wear army gear?

no matter how well stefani pays those harajuku girls, they are still carrying out these weird racist imageries of asian girls that eerily remind me of old victorian illustrations of little turbanned black servants with lips wide enough to resemble a cartoon dog's muzzle, gathering 'round the white missus at her every beck and call. the way stefani is going about this also totally reminds me of the story "madame butterfly" where pinkerton's white wife says to the geisha, "How very charming—how lovely—you are, dear! Will you kiss me, you pretty—plaything!" plaything, indeed.

"Shoot, I'd follow Gwen around and pretend I don't exist for less then they are probably doing it for.. (Sorry...I am a Gwen fan...)"

i'd lose my dignity first before i ever get paid to act like a stupid stereotype of myself, even for someone i admired, except maybe for kate rigg's chink-o-rama (http://katerigg.com/html/chinko.html), which is fucking HILARIOUS and makes fun of this type of bullshit.

"the entire video consists of a high school peopled by non-sexualized Harajuku girls."

being as i'm familiar with carson high school and its surrounding area, i'm pretty sure that most of the carson high flag girls who star in that video are filipino-americans, not girls who hang out in the harajuku district of tokyo. and dude, one of stefani's own harajuku girls shakes her ass right there on the floor in the video.

You bitches need to get a life. It's entertainment, everything doesn't need to be philosophized.

I'm stunned at some of these comments. How does Gwen's paying girls for acting as her pets make that OK?

And as for "non-sexualized Harajuku girls"?!? You should re-read Ahn's Bitch article (which was anything but shrill). One of her points was that at the core of Harajuku culture was the practice of selling sexual favors in order to afford the very expensive couture that Stefani is promoting. There's no such thing as "non-sexualized Harajuku girls."

"It's entertainment, everything doesn't need to be philosophized."

why, you're absolutely right! mindless acceptance is the only way to go! now let's all bamboozle ourselves into thinking that racial minstrelsy is nothing but entertainment!

"why, you're absolutely right! mindless acceptance is the only way to go! now let's all bamboozle ourselves into thinking that racial minstrelsy is nothing but entertainment!"

Adrianna you are so clever! You're words and ideas so new and original. Adrianna, give yourself a hand. Then try living in reality.

The fact is, IT IS ENTERTAINMENT. Oddly enough if the subject of this issue where not a Gwen Stephani video, but say, a feature length film starring serious and well respected actors, in which a group of harajuku girls were portrayed for whatever the reason, or simply a part of the backdrop of the film, this post would not even exist. But because a few silly girls need to appear deep and forward thinking and need to criticize things they obviously have very little or no knowledge of, we have this unnecessary, albeit, entertaining post.

As previously stated: You bitches need to get a life. It's entertainment, everything doesn't need to be philosophized.

And Adrianna, dear, if you need a cause to grab hold of, try helping to change laws for women sent to prison for icing their abusive husbands, or simply donate your energies to a local meal-on-wheels association or a shelter. Anything would be more useful than:
"...now let's all bamboozle ourselves into thinking that racial minstrelsy is nothing but entertainment!"
Sistah, get a grip.

oh, please, spare us your assumptions of what i really do or don't do in real life to help other people, as if all i ever did or thought or wrote about is on this page—OF COURSE there are bigger issues than the gwenihana girls to be concerned about, like sandra day o'connor's recent announcement & the danger her resignation will bring to roe vs. wade—but why in the world should that stop me or anyone else taking a break every now & then just to type a few observations on the sad state of entertainment? especially of a type of entertainment that, despite earnestly trying to show appreciation for the fashion & pop culture of a different country, manages to do it in such a way that fucking insults the general image of myself and my girl friends and relatives; stefani's harajuku girls perform stereotypes without ANY hint of irony that would, in my opinion, redeem at least some of the intent behind those actions.

i mean, c'mon, forbidding four english-speaking japanese-americans from speaking a lick of english in her presence? having them bow down on all fours before her as she sits on a throne? even though they chose to do this & are getting paid quite well to do it, how the FUCK is an asian girl like me supposed to just sit back and enjoy stereotypes of herself as harmless entertainment?

and really, it's not as if i'm going to show up at every one of stefani's red-carpet appearances with picket signs in hand—i'm only a former fan expressing disappointment in a former idol gone horribly awry, which is probably why it's a bigger deal to me than if harajuku girls were portayed in cinema—and i wouldn't even give a damn about that as long as they're portrayed accurately.

"a few silly girls need to appear deep and forward thinking and need to criticize things they obviously have very little or no knowledge of"

jeez, can't you at least credit a bunch of asian girls with knowing at least a thing or two about asian pop culture? it's their own culture, for chrissakes! i just corrected a dumb-ass here who labeled all the asian girls en masse as harajuku girls in the hollaback video.

Come on you guys! Seriously? It's Gwen Stefani! She's always been about girl power! Me being a black female from West Africa, I've never felt that Gwen has ever been a racist. This is the first time I've ever heard of Harajuku girls and it's because of Gwen Stefani. I've always been a big fan of her and No Doubt. I think she added the Harajuku girls because she really likes their style, their free spirit, and the way they still kick ass as females - who are not afraid to be feminine. We give too much power to stereotypes and we're always looking for a target to comment on racial injustice. For once an artist steps out of the box and has all
Asians in her video. We harldly see great media representation of Blacks, Latinos, or Asians. So we should allow her to be the artist that she is and to see her inclusion of the Harajuku girls from a purely artistic, creative standpoint. Love. Angel. Music. Baby!

I am part Asian/Black African and though I don't think Gwen Stefani is a racist, I think there are dignified ways of introducing the world to other cultures without resorting to stereotyping.
Having said that, I am glad to see Asians in the media, although I wish they could be portrayed in a positive and respectful manner. But I wonder, what people would say if she had 4 black girls parading after her and bowing ? Just a thought.

http://margaretcho.net/blog/

I don't know how the Harajuku girls can be seen as a racist or stereotypical attempt on Gwen Stefani's behalf?!

Isn't this a BIG subculture scene in Japan? If anyone is going to be miffed by them, be miffed that a subculture scene is being mainstreamed.

This is no different than buying "punk" clothing at a local mall retail venue.

I think many people are really searching for something to criticize here. If anyone is to blame for characterizing Japanese women, it is Japanese women in Japan! It's fashion, it's theatrical, it's costume, but I don't think it's racist.

Sandra

In response to Sassafras' comment: Actually black rappers were the first to exhibit 'exoticizing' by means of Asian ho's in their videos. And Russ even bought him an Asain ho. Call a spade a spade nigga.

I found the conversation above interesting, because after going to Gwen's concert in Toronto last Friday I decided to google Harajuku girls to see what they were all about because I had no idea (hence emphasizing bringing a sub culture to mainstream). During the concert, I didn't see(or maybe didn't notice) any of the bowing etc that was mentioned above and actually at the end (like most artists do) Gwen introduced her band and dancers with her arms around them like good friends and announced where they were from... only two of the "harajuku" girls were from Japan... the other two from the states. The girls said hello to the crowd and did a crazy little dance move and that was the end of it. Stefani is portraying these girls as super cool, super stylish women in control of their lives and style ... which is classic Gwen - girl power all the way. And let me tell you, they were INCREDIBLE dancers! I sat there thinking those girls must be paid HUGE to do what they do because it's so unique. They're paid to do what they do because they're good at it... not because of who they are or where they're from. That's the entertainment part. The culture aspect is something that Gwen used as a theme basis for her album because it's hip, it's 'new' (in the sense that it's just been 'discovered' by maintstream) and therefore "cool". I think that's where the fine line between entertainment and culture is being miscontrued as far as Gwen's album is concerned.
The show was awesome, and the rest of the 20 thousand (mostly women) fans there seemed to agree.
As a side note, she also had four black men break dancers along with the harajuku girls that took turns busting up the stage with their cool moves.
I was impressed anyway, and am usually quite sensitive to racial and culture issues in the media and entertainment, but after sitting at the concert (which I went to btw bc friends had extra tickets so I said sure why not...) I didn't feel any of the above comments were prevelent in the concert at all.
I'd love to hear comments back to my concert experience from the girls who were concerned with their culture being misinterpreted. Maybe I just missed it, or I'm completely mis-informed about the entire Harajuku girls thing.

I was shock to see Gwen and her Harajuku girls.

First she treat them like pet, and I don't think human should be treat like that.

Then, she call them Harajuku girls, and that their style is hot and everything, first it's not Harajuku style, but it's HER style, whitch it totally different from the style Harajuku people dress, People in Harajuku are cosplayer, lolitas, and mostly fan of visual Kei, they all eatch have a fashion thats unique and far different from hers.

I'm sorry my english is awful, it's not my first language.

i agree with yuffie, that's not their style, cause they're always dressed in the same way.
i think they're only there cause of the visual effect it gives. there's been all this fuss bout Japan recently, we see more japanese movies or movies bout Japan than ever, so its only natural to hire japanese girls to drawn people to see the videos and such. so i really don't think its a racism thing.
think about it, if they were 4 white average american girls, they wouldn't drawn as much attention.

it's all business. i'm not asian, but i think asian people shouldn't take the harajuku girls as an offense. i agree that they aren't dressed as japanese girls, but what sells is the hip-hop style, and not the japanese style.

It seems to me that any attempt at representation risks the label of exploitation. If they'd all been bleached blond American girls then this would probably be a question of gender, and if they followed the Harajuku style then it would be seen as a different sort of exploitation through invisibility.

Of course it's gimmicky, it's popular culture, and it's highly theatricised. It's a show.

Maybe it's because I'm a bisexual girl with BDSM tendencies and there is that undercurrent of the harem aspect to it... There's probably a lot of girls who would love to be in the position of those dancers.

But the entire world of her videos is one fantasy to the next, it doesn't try and give a realistic portrayal of anyone. Of course they all adore her in her videos, she's doing it to be self indulgent. It's a little tacky, but unless someone is going to show any sort of evidence that those girls are having any less than a great time, and making floods of cash then I'm saying that it's woman's right to free expression of sexuality. The role of the background dancer of any gender, race, or appearance is to show off the main star. That's why they're called backing dancers.

And if they're happy making money doing it, then good on them, and her.

Maybe there's a close mindedness in thinking that a) the girls can't possibly get any satisfaction or enjoyment from what they're doing. B) that what they're doing doesn't take any skill. and C) that they are so easy impreasionable and desparate that they'd do it if they didn't want to.

Give the young ladies some credit for being able to choose their own careers, without needing someone else to tell them what's appropriate and politically correct. I'm sure that THEY know if they're being exploited or not. P.S Thanks to the person who reported from at the concert, it's nice to have a perspective on the 'out of role' goings on..... and anyone who thinks those interviews are anything but huge publicity stunts.... so gullible.

*so sayeth the white girl wannabe in the inspired dress*....yes, I bought one on ebay from japan. Yes, I look silly. But it's fun.

To me, feminism is about women making their own choices.

These girls have chosen their career and likely, they enjoy it or else, why would they do it? It's not as thoug Gwen Stefani went to Asia, kidnapped these girls and keeps them in a cage.

They aren't telling you how to live your life so don't bitch about the career they've chosen.

i dont think gwen have exploitated those harajuku girls at all, i think it's all about choices.

i dont think gwen have exploitated those harajuku girls at all, i think it's all about choices.

What I saw the other day horrified me.

While perusing the handbags at a dept store the other day, I came across the Harajuku Lover's line. One of the many loud prints on these bags had a "circus" theme, depicting Gwen S. as a "ringleader" (complete with a whip) and these Harajuku girls as, ahem, "acts." See for yourself here.

Sorry, but that's just plain offensive, no matter what ethnic group you are!

What I saw the other day horrified me.

While perusing the handbags at a dept store the other day, I came across the Harajuku Lover's line. One of the many loud prints on these bags had a "circus" theme, depicting Gwen S. as a "ringleader" (complete with a whip) and these Harajuku girls as, ahem, "acts." See for yourself here.

Sorry, but that's just plain offensive, no matter what ethnic group you are!

Guys, it's kind of beside the point how much these girls are getting paid and what goes on behind the scenes in terms of the message the performance itself sends. I admittedly don't know much about what's going on with Gwen Stefani these days (nor do I really care all that terribly much), but as far as I can tell it looks like she's been producing some pretty weird and exploitative imagery.

And by the way -- what Gwen fan blog did we get linked from? What the hell is up with all the completely superficial and offensive commentary? "You bitches need to get a life"? What the hell, people?

old thread before the femipolice (aka ME) came in. lol

gwen stefani needs to get a life.