Avril Lavigne is denying her video Hello Kitty is racist, reports Newsweek.
The video has been widely criticized for being just plain bad, and also for her use of four emotionless Japanese dancers and the fetishization of Asian women.
She tweeted the following.
RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!! I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan. I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video…
— Avril Lavigne (@AvrilLavigne) April 24, 2014
In part two of the above tweet she said she did the video “…specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND a Japanese director IN Japan.” Part 1 of her tweet has already been retweeted 8,400 times presumably by her fans who agree with her. Part 2 has been tweeted more than 5,000 times. But not everyone is buying it. Asian American commentator and blogger Jeff Yang tweeted the following.
“Laugh out laugh out laugh out loud”? Seriously, what does that even mean? pic.twitter.com/3rm3mSueWR
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) April 25, 2014
But this one I thought was especially creative.
Really looking forward to “DIVAS LIVE: ASIAN BY CHOICE!” w/@katyperry @gwenstefani @Madonna @Rihanna @AvrilLavigne! pic.twitter.com/f9YCc3GF7I
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) April 25, 2014
