Gwen Stefani declares She's Japanese

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12 Jan 2023, 11:35 am

I have zero interest in this "celebrity", but if she's Japanese then I'm Australian.
G'day mate, let's have ourselves a shrimp on the barby. Don't let a dingo eat your baby! :lol:

naturalplastic
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12 Jan 2023, 12:07 pm

Even if she doesnt 'move to Japan' she could at least record a cover version of this.

Topping the American charts in 1963 its still the only song, sung in a non European language, to become at hit in the US.

https://youtu.be/C35DrtPlUbc

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12 Jan 2023, 6:36 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

I just googled the lyrics. There isnt anything "racist" in the lyrics that I can see.

The music is indeed punctuated by that Hollywood 'doo da doo da doo-- dot doo dot doo' motif that old movies use to signal 'east Asian', or "Chinese". But thats too stupid to be offensive IMHO.

There's a line where the guys says "after turning Japanese" he can't get anymore "Sex, women, wine" and "everyone around me thinks I'm a stranger". This plays on an early 1980s trope that asian men are foreigners

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12 Jan 2023, 6:36 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:

I have zero interest in this "celebrity", but if she's Japanese then I'm Australian.
G'day mate, let's have ourselves a shrimp on the barby. Don't let a dingo eat your baby! :lol:

Literally nobody ever said that in this country :lol:

naturalplastic
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12 Jan 2023, 6:55 pm

cyberdad wrote:

lostonearth35 wrote:

I have zero interest in this "celebrity", but if she's Japanese then I'm Australian.
G'day mate, let's have ourselves a shrimp on the barby. Don't let a dingo eat your baby! :lol:

Literally nobody ever said that in this country :lol:

Well...those American commercials were flawed because an Aussie would say "put another prawn on the barbie".

cyberdad
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12 Jan 2023, 9:22 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

Well...those American commercials were flawed because an Aussie would say "put another prawn on the barbie".

A lot of the colloquialisms used by Paul Hogan back in the 1980s were dated (even back then) and specific to a particular demographic e.g. country boys who worked on cattle stations etc...

If anything Australians today tend to sound/use language that make them sound like Pseudo-Americans

aghogday
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13 Jan 2023, 12:57 am

Gwen Stefani's Fame Came With "Rich Girl" And "Hollaback Girl;"
Apparently, Her Father Had Business Dealings With Japanese Folks

For Many Years And She Became Enthused About the Japanese
Culture and 'Incorporated' it; Particularly, in the Song "Rich Girl,"

13 or So Years Ago, When i Was in the 'Dead Zone' And Couldn't

Use my Eyes and Ears Effectively With A Pain Disorder Then From
Wake to Sleep;

So Effectively For 66
Months, i Got Separated
From Culture, Almost Totally,
Except For the Wrong Planet
For the Last 33 Months, Enduring
Type Two Trigeminal Neuralgia Then,
The Worst Pain Known to Humankind
And 18 Other Medical Disorders, All Part
oF A Rather Epic Autism Burn-out From

11 Years of Chronic to Acute Related Work-Stress, 1996 to 2007

As Everyone Expected me to Do A Little Bit of Everything At Work

And on the Autism Spectrum Keeping A Job isn't always A Given so

'No' wasn't in my Work Resume Back in Those Old Work Days (33 Years) Extinguished

Now Thank Whatever Real God For The Rest of my Life by Financial Independence
That Makes Living

In This American
Culture of Money
Making and Buying
Stuff A Lot Easier;

No Longer Needing to
Make Money or Much More
Stuff to Survive and Thrive;

Sure, Food and Tooth Paste;
Fast Internet Access and Such;

It's Really No Surprise to me that
Many Folks Are Lost From Deeper Meaning

in Life as Generally a Consumer Culture is

As Dry as Material Goods Without Any Real Soul;

It's Sort of Like Being What Some Folks Describe As Part
of the "Red-Neck" Community in the North Part of Our
County More Associated Now With Meth Labs Sadly For
the Socio-Economically

Disadvantaged;

Where the Culture
of Rap Music Feeds the
Distress of Those Souls,

Who Are Hanging on by
Not Only Socio-Economic Threads

Yet Desperate to Feel Part of Something
Larger and More Meaningful in Life to them;

So Yeah, i Always Found it Interesting to Hear
The Rap Songs Coming From the Stereotypical

Huge Four Wheel Drives That Were Old Yet Never
The Less Had Really Big Tires And Lift Kits of Course.

Anyway, It Doesn't Seem Like A Mortal Sin That Ms. Gwen AKA
Mrs. Blake Sheldon, if She Sways That Way By Name Is A "Super Fan"
Of the Positive Attributes of Japanese Culture And Also A Lover of Latino

Culture and Other Cultures too That She May Incorporate In the Arts She Does;

As Yes, American Culture Will Be A Bit Dry, Materialistic, And Shallow Indeed; Yet

Of Course, i've Heard
the Same About
Japanese Culture
too; Yet Perhaps the

Artistic Folks Over There
Appeal More to Her "ArT MiND/SoUL" too;

Not Unusual For Open Minded Personalities
To Appreciate Change and Other Ways of Loving

Life; Whether That Be Other Cultures or Even Religions in General too;

i Understand in Initial Offense, the Woman Interviewing Ms Stefani Related

That She Was 'Envious' For Someone Who Could Enjoy the Positive Attributes

of Asian Culture; Yet Avoid the Backlash That Asian Minorities Often Experience in America.

Oh Dear Lord, In Our Modern Days of America, There Aren't Just 3 Channels of Black and White TV;

Where Everyone Sits Around And Watches the Local And 6 PM News In Several Different Time Zones As Such;

And Folks All Go to the Most Popular Movie At the Theater; And Most Folks Go to Church Every Sunday; And

Folks Actually Bowl in Huge Leagues Filling Bowling Centers From Seas to Shining Shores; We Are Diversified

In So Many Ways; That Hehe, Most Everyone Has Their Own Style of Being Human in How They Dress in

Everyday

Low Prices

of Walmart;

And YeS, How They Act too;

That Works Out Great If You Are the
Kinda Person Who May Go Out on Their
Own and Be Satisfied Completely With the

Culture They Create For Themselves; Yes, This is
The Way i Like to Do it Like 'Snoopy' For Real Generating

My Own Happy Dance

And Still Working

On That 'Lifetime
Channel' Book and
Play That is All Mine to Do For Real Free;

Other Folks Are More Like Dogs Than Cats;

As Snoopy Related It's Not Easy Being a Dog in This Life Solo, Hehe...

So True, i Guess that Makes me An "Aristocrat Cat" Too As i Don't Need

Any Go Fund me's to Do me Free; On The Other Hand, Gwen Stefani Appreciates

Japanese Culture;

In A World Where

Presidents Can't seem
to Keep Their 'Top Secret
Documents' Where They Are

Supposed to Be; This Doesn't Seem
Like A Mortal Sin Worthy of Punishment;

Yet What it Did Do is Finally Solve The Age Old

Problem i Had of Figuring Out What The Hell that

Catchy Tune At the Dance Hall i Heard All 6 Years till

Covid-19 Shut the Place Down in 2020; i Always Thought

That She Was Singing 'There Ain't No Hall of "Fat" Girls;'

(i Had No Idea Who Gwen Stefani Is Until i Saw A News
Feed on Facebook Last Year Showing Off Her Latest 'Face Fix')

Yet That Was Before the 'Me too' Movement Was

Generated By The Trump Meme of Grabbing

Stuff Below; There WaS A Whole Lot of Extreme
Freedom of Expression Then as the Pendulum

Swung Toward

Trump and

Ensuing

Chaos Is Still the Rule;

i Don't Have to Worry About
Anyone Appropriating My Culture
of Dance And Song As Folks Have Tried
to Copy my Style of Spiraling Public Dance And

Yes Found Themselves on the Floor Very Dizzy;

And True, You Won't Find Anyone Programming

Any Machines For the Way i Write Free Poetry Song;

Other Than That i Identify

With the Soul of

The Young Woman

Who Could Hear The

Heart Beat of Mother Earth

AKA the Local Version of God

in the Movie "Avatar Way of Water;" Yet Only By SPiRiT HeART

Soul Far Beyond The Form i Am in Flesh and Blood And Far Beyond

Any THING American Culture Has Become to Be Mired in Words And Other Tools Now;

Becoming The Weight of my Finger Tips in Balancing of Public Dancing 17,722 Miles
in 112 Months; Indeed, FRiEnDS With Gravity i Feel The heART Beat of A Much Deeper
World Within; True,

More Likely How
Humans Were One
With All of Nature

Before We Became

Trapped in Words
And Tools We Use;

Like The Rest of Nature,

Too SmART For Real to Identify
With Any Force Less Than NaTuRE ALL For Real...

A Greatest Part of the United States Now Still is We Do Have
The Life, Liberty, And Pursuit of Truly Thriving Deeper in Meaning

And Joy of Life;

If We aRe Able
To Seek and Find It ALL Real.

Thank God, i Lost Effective Use
of my Eyes and Ears for 66 Months;

It Gave me the Opportunity to Escape all Culture;

Look Within; Reboot The Whole God Damned 'Thing'
And Set myself Free With
Wings

Feather
Wind Weight;

i Can't Figure Out
Any Greater Identification
Than Simply Peace iN LoVE iN Peace

Not A Fictional Extraterrestrial on the

(Although the Movie 'The Way of Water'

Did A Fair Job of How i Experience Life
For How the Little Epileptic Girl Did One
With NaTuRE ALL)

Big Screen

or Attached
to only A 6 Inch
Screen As Only
A Spectator of Someone Else's Play In Life;

Or Even Worse, Only A Slave For Pay; The Great Money God For Real too...

Anyway, Obviously, Ms. Gwen Doesn't Believe She is 'Literally'
A Japanese Person;

She Just Expresses

Great Appreciation

And Yes Has Lots of
Money off of Cultural
Expressions of Japanese
Ways of Doing Life; Sure that

Means Appropriation of
Culture too For Bucks.

Yet Never the

Less; Surely Still

The American Way, Overall,
For What A Consumer CuLTuRE
Loves to Eat Still in Sadly "Soylent
Green Ways of Living Soul;" Yes,

Sadly
LoSinG
HeART
BeaT SPiRiT SoUL oF All...

It's No Wonder That Some
Folks Became Suicidal After
The First Avatar Movie, So

Far Away From Their Reality

Deep Within, They Themselves Are to Be As Just Nature Free

Yet So Lost With the Message Mr. Cameron Brought to Screen...

Anyway i'm Just Glad to Finally Learn About The Word "Hollaback" Another

Mystery
Solved
on the
Wrong Planet Hehe...

Not Unlike "Salt Shaker;"

That's Song Has Had
A Long Shelf Life; Hehe

Sort of like me too;

Yeah Gotta Keep

Moving in Dance
And Sogn Free to Stay

Vibrant As A Butterfly
Out of Old Musty Cocoons For Real;

Locusts After 17 Years Like the Years
i Spent 'Underground' From 1996 Thru 2013;

Are Okay too As Long as You Don't Come Out
From Underground, Reproduce And Just Go Away

Again
Without
Staying

Reborn Newly With SMiLes...

-me

_________________
KATiE MiA FredericK!iI

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http://en.gravatar.com/katiemiafrederick

cyberdad
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13 Jan 2023, 2:25 am

aghogday wrote:

[align=center]Gwen Stefani's Fame Came With "Rich Girl" And "Hollaback Girl;"
Apparently, Her Father Had Business Dealings With Japanese Folks

For Many Years And She Became Enthused About the Japanese
Culture and 'Incorporated' it; Particularly, in the Song "Rich Girl,"

]

Makes sense

naturalplastic
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13 Jan 2023, 6:30 am

Gwen Stefani and No Doubt were big for a decade before "Hollaback Girl".

Their second album in 1995 had two inescapable hits:"Dont Speak", and "Just a Girl". Hollaback Girl wasnt until 2005.

Biscuitman
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13 Jan 2023, 7:39 am

Just read up on this to understand it and she isn't claiming to actually be Japanese, she just means her character and interests seem to fit more with the experience of Japan she had (but she is also saying this to sell a product)

People say this kind of stuff all the time. They are not intending for it to be taken literally.

cyberdad
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13 Jan 2023, 6:11 pm

It's hard to say what she is thinking.

1986
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13 Jan 2023, 10:30 pm

Just for perspective, I believe hardly any Japanese were offended by this. If anything, they responded positively. Almost all of contemporary Japanese culture is imported from other countries, it has just been slightly altered to fit the nation (e.g. sailor uniforms for high school girls). People outside Japan who criticise her for this are seeing it through the racial lens of Western society, but basically, Japanese people don't mind what she said. It's kind of hypocritical to speak on behalf of Japanese people when you don't even understand who you are "supporting".

Quoted from 2nd most upvoted comment on the most popular news website in Japan:

Quote:

There have been cases in the past where American entertainers who adopted Japanese culture were heavily criticised, but basically, Japanese people do not consider their culture as exploited or stolen even if it is imitated, as long as they do not lie like some people in other countries do, claiming the appropriated culture is a product of their own. The basic attitude and strength of the Japanese people has been to incorporate good things as they come along.

cyberdad
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13 Jan 2023, 10:37 pm

1986 wrote:

People outside Japan who criticise her for this are seeing it through the racial lens of Western society, but basically, Japanese people don't mind what she said. It's kind of hypocritical to speak on behalf of Japanese people when you don't even understand who you are "supporting".

While this might not be offensive to Japanese people living in Japan, for an American born Japanese her comment might be construed as cultural appropriation. There is a history of American actors playing asian cast so it might also invoke "yellow face".

But I agree the severity of the reaction would not be as great if she was claiming to be African American.

Biscuitman
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16 Jan 2023, 3:51 am

I work with someone for who is became a running joke that they would always be tired each afternoon and yawn a lot. This person used to say they must be Spanish really as their body was asking for a siesta

should they be cancelled for this? should we be outraged on Spain's behalf?

cyberdad
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16 Jan 2023, 5:09 am

Biscuitman wrote:

Not really

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