Gwen Stefani is preparing for her comeback tour Baby Don’t Lie ten years after she appeared on the music scene with her solo debut.
But some have not forgotten how she made her initial splash ten years ago. Stefani’s debut album contained “extremely racist stereotypes” of Asian women.
Time‘s Eliana Dockterman describes the Harajuku girls as basically puppets. The video starts off with the girls bowing in homage to Stefani. The girls even purr like kittens because the “catwalk got its claws,” as the lyrics go.
You see those Harajuku girls are Stefani’s little pussy cats. Dockterman argues Stefani’s appropriation of Asian culture incited “what has now become a common cultural practice of white female pop stars using other races as props.”
Even Mad TV and Margaret Cho joined the debate over Harajuku Girls ten years ago. You can read about that in Time and let us know what you think. Is it time Stefani apologized?