What in the Sam hell?
Yeah, yeah, it’s 2023, I know you could identify as a door frame if you wanted to and probably be able to get a discount at Home Depot.
However, when it comes to appropriating other cultures, that’s generally pretty frowned upon in this day and age.
Which is why the internet is so confused by Gwen Stefani right now.
The No Doubt frontwoman, pop star, fashion designer, and current wife of country music superstar Blake Shelton, has found herself in some hot water after she claimed that she was Japanese. And then doubled down.
And here’s the thing… she’s definitely not.
Stefani was born to an Italian American father, and an Irish American mother in Fullerton, California, and although she went back and forth to Japan a lot as a kid because her father worked for Yamaha, she has absolutely zero biological connections to the country of Japan.
But yet, she’s claiming she’s Japanese.
The singer launched her GXVE beauty brand last year, and her Harajuku Lovers fragrance line back in 2008. When asked about previous criticisms of cultural appropriation in an interview with Allure yesterday, she went even further.
Stefani, told the interviewer that she made the discovery that she’s Asian:
“I said, ‘My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it.’ I am, you know.
If people are going to criticize me for being a fan of something beautiful and sharing that, then I just think that doesn’t feel right. I think it was a beautiful time of creativity… a time of the ping-pong match between Harajuku culture and American culture.
It should be okay to be inspired by other cultures because if we’re not allowed then that’s dividing people, right?”
Throughout the interview, she claimed that she was Japanese a few times, and then continued by saying she also identifies as:
“A little bit of an Orange County girl, a little bit of a Japanese girl, a little bit of an English girl.”
But this isn’t the first time she’s been in hot water about something like this, as she’s been accused of “cultural appropriation” several times before.
For example, she faced a ton of backlash for wearing her hair in dreadlocks, along with a dress inspired by the Jamaican flag.
She was also asked about the move by Billboard back in 2019, but defended herself then as well, saying:
“I get a little defensive when people call it culture appropriation, because if we didn’t allow each other to share our cultures, what would we be?
You take pride in your culture and have traditions, and then you share them for new things to be created.”
A rep for Stefani reached out to the Allure interviewer, Jesa Marie Calaor (who actually is Asian), the next day, saying that Stefani was “misunderstood” but then declined to offer up a clarification.
But, it seemed pretty clear cut what she was trying to say.
Stefani’s 2005 tour was called the Harajuku Lovers Tour and featured Asian backup dancers:
