Cultural Appropriation of Japanese Culture by Global Celebrities

Globalisation as defined by G. Ritzer, “Is the worldwide diffusion of practices, expansion of relations across continents, the organizations of social life on a global scale, and the growth of a shared global consciousness”. Today guided by the instantaneous nature of media, which allows media to spread in seconds to anyone with wireless internet, globalisation as defined by Ritzer is moving at its fastest pace yet. Just each day, over five hundred million tweets are sent out into the social media channel, resulting in the largest influx of information in history. This surplus of information has been capitalised on, led by the understanding that with so much information in the world, it can be easy to influence the media observer and consumer. This can be seen by a multitude of media sources, such as magazines, musicians and clothing brands who all aid in the speedy globalisation in order to advertise to social media users. This exchange of cultural knowledge through media especially can be seen through the lense of fashion and lifestyle, often having detrimental effects in relation to cultural diversity. Fashion and lifestyle are interwoven with how the world views diversity. Unfortunately, this often leads to cultural appropriation by celebrities, businesses and fashion brands, which spreads through the world and sets the standards of how people view other cultures. According to the Oxford Dictionary, cultural appropriation is defined as, “The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society,”. In this essay, I will investigate the negative consequences of fashion and lifestyle industries’ assistance in globalisation, focusing on the appropriation of Japanese culture. This can be seen through a theoretical analysis of Gwen Stefani, Rihanna, Ariana Grande and Kim Kardashian’s cultural appropriations of Japanese culture in their work in relation to fashion.

Often times, the way in which the world views and shares different diverse cultures is linked to stereotypes. These stereotypes are most likely perpetuated by how the privileged society members, often white, Western, upper class misuse another group’s culture, thus claiming it as their own and changing the identity of that culture. As stated by Kenan Malik, “Campaigners against cultural appropriation argue that when 'privileged' cultures adopt the styles of 'less privileged' ones they help create stereotypes of what such cultures are like, and assert racial power… ‘By dressing up as a fake Indian’, one Native American told white students, ‘you are asserting your power over us, and continuing to oppress us,’” This issue can be seen through Gwen Stefani, a famous pop singer’s Harajuku collection with Target. Stefani previously had always linked her work to Japanese culture, basing songs and videos on her album on Harajuku style, which is a colourful and distinct style traditionally worn by Japanese youth (Magnocavallo, 2019). However, when her new Harajuku collection was announced, it received negative feedback. Not only was Gwen Stefani stealing Japanese style, but she was telling the world who Japan is from a privileged position, thus pushing stereotypes to the forefront. Another problem with this was that she was spreading an idea of the fetishisation of Japanese culture. Instead of being seen as just their everyday culture, equal to other cultures, Stefani’s work highlights the Harajuku style in a sexual way, leaning into Japanese stereotypes of being sexualised and fetishised .

This also can be viewed through Ariana Grande’s involvement in Japanese culture. This year, the pop star’s influence has skyrocketed with the release of her newest album and she has magnetized more attention than ever before. This, however, means that society, especially her young followers, were influenced when she began wearing Japanese inspired clothing, released tour merchandise with a Japanese symbol on it and got a tattoo in Japanese characters, which was misspelled. While Grande claimed that she was honouring the culture of her Japanese fans and laughed off the spelling mistake in her Japanese character tattoo, which translated to “BBQ Grill,” she announced to fans that she fixed the tattoo, and worked with her tutor to understand the mistake. She told her followers, “There is a difference between appropriation and appreciation. My Japanese fans were always excited when I wrote in Japanese or wore Japanese sayings on clothing. However, all of my merch with Japanese on it was taken down from my site, not that anyone cared to notice,”. While Grande claimed it was appreciation, she did, similarly to Gwen Stefani, claim Japanese culture as something she, a person in a position of Western privilege, had the choice to spread to the world. Thus, making Japenese fans uncomfortable by their lack of ownership of their culture. While there is a fine line between appropriation that is walkable, it needs to be done correctly, and in a way that does not allow racial power to be constructed by the appreciator, and instead empowers the culture which is being referenced.

Kim Kardashian West, who ammasses over one hundred fifty two million Instagram followers, is a part of a family who is linked to fashion and globalisation. The impact of her family alone has been credited with helping to craft the modern day society. However, in June 2019, it was highlighted what the negative impact of being tethered to the center of the world’s mediation when Kardashian West announced the impending release of her new shape wear solutions brand, named Kimono, after her own forename. This announcement resulted in outrage across the world. Kim’s solution wear, although named after the kimono, a historically famous item linked to Japanese heritage and culture worn by Geishas, the brand had nothing to do with. She also applied for the name Kimono to be trademarked, so others would be unable to use the brand name. After posting about her brand, the hashtag #KimOHno trended on Twitter, showing that people were not accepting of this brand choice, because it did not relate in any way to traditional Japanese kimonos, and it took the ability to use the name away from people of their own country. Thus, perpetuating the idea that a fashion brand is spreading the word of a culture, without caring to teach anyone about the meaning behind it, leaving the culture lost in a blurry space.

The line between this, however can be blurry, as seen by Rihanna’s Harper’s Bazaar China cover in August 2019. On the cover, Rihanna is pictured wearing Chinese traditional beauty looks and a kimono robe style outfit in order to bring together Western and Eastern beauty. However, this cover, although produced by a Chinese magazine did receive negative opinions because Rihanna, someone who does not have personal ties to Chinese culture, is the person chosen to represent this. Although this was looked at as appropriation by some, it can also be argued the other way around. Yes, cultural appropriation is bad, but the fight over who owns what is only perpetuating this cultural racism. Our society has been built upon borrowing and sharing cultures, so why fight over who owns what, when instead we could be fighting for equality? If japanese people are the only ones allowed to wear kimonos and chinese people are only allowed to wear chinese beauty techniques, are we honouring them by respecting their culture, or are we assuming and now placing new stereotypes on their culture.

While it is impossible to ever know a solid formula to solving this issue of how to display cultural diversity without crossing boundaries and appropriating versus appreciating, it is clear that the globalization of this diversity is centered around the fashion and lifestyle industry. Brands such as Kimono, Harajuku by Gwen Stefani, Ariana Grande’s involvement with Japanese culture and Rihanna’s Harper’s Bazaar China cover all show that the impact fashion figures have on how the world views, exchanges and shares culture is major, and has the potential to shape minds and hurt feelings. For now, it is crucial for the fashion industry to make their choices through a lense of looking to show cultures in a way which portrays equality throughout different cultures in the world, so that globalisation can continue as a positive impacting entity in the world.