Fires back at cultural appropriation claims

https://pagesix.com/2021/05/27/gwen-stefani-hits-back-at-cultural-appropriation-claims/
“Gwen Stefani has long taken heat for parading around with a group of Japanese-America women she called “Harajuku Girls” — but she insists she has no regrets.”

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““If we didn’t buy and sell and trade our cultures in, we wouldn’t have so much beauty, you know?” Stefani, 51, told Paper Magazine in an article published Wednesday.

“We learn from each other, we share from each other, we grow from each other. And all these rules are just dividing us more and more.””

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“Stefani’s decision to profit off of Japanese culture, however, has gotten slammed by critics, including comedian Margaret Cho, who compared her performances with the Harajuku Girl to a minstrel show.

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“The “Just A Girl” singer also believes that social media today has hindered peoples’ freedom to express themselves and share in each other’s cultures as they used to before.

“I think that we grew up in a time where we didn’t have so many rules,” she said. “We didn’t have to follow a narrative that was being edited for us through social media, we just had so much more freedom.”

The singer expressed that she doesn’t think that everything needs to be a statement, even saying that she never set out to start a feminist movement but just lead by example.

“I don’t need to go on Instagram and say ‘girl power.’ I just need to live and be a good person and leave a trail of greatness behind me,” she said. “Stop talking about it and stop trying to bully everybody about it. Just do it. And that’s how I feel like I’ve lived my life.””