Exploitation or Adaption? Gwen Sefani and the Harajuku Girls

The Harajuku girl’s are teenagers from Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan. The way Gwen Stefani shows the Harajuku Girls maybe the way she sees them as, and so what if she has altered them a little bit, it isn’t hurting anybody. So there looks are different then the Harajuku Girls in Japan but they all do not dress the same, some kinds of harajuku girls may be gothic lolita, gothic maid, Wamono, Decora, Second-Hand Fashion, and cyber fashion.The Harajuku girls did not originate from there they first were in England and then Japan adapted them in to their own culture, but do u hear anybody picking at them? No. Though people may think that Gwen Stefani is torching them she really isn’t, in the one music video she is complimenting them, and they were the ones who signed the contract saying that they would act like dolls, they new that they were not going to be able to speak.

Margaret Cho said, “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.” Recently myself and two other people were looking through Seventeen Magazine issue May 2007 it had 157 pages, and we found out that 84% of the people in the ads were Caucasian, and 0.5% were Asian, so that just goes to show we do not see many Asians in movies and hit TV shows now a days.

MiHi Ahn said, “Four Harajuku girls, or rather, Stefani's interpretation of Tokyo street fashion in the Harajuku district.” Though I may not agree with what MiHi Ahn said but many other people may think that she is just interpreting the Harajuku style.

Work Cited
Cho, Margaret. Harajuku Girls. 10 Oct. 2005. 18 Oct. 2007.
Ahn, MiHi. Gwenihana. 9 Apr. 2005. 18 Oct. 2007.
Jason Kellner. “Gwen Stefani and the Harajuku Girls.” 28. February. 2007. Online image. RGJ.com. 18. October. 2007.