“Singer Avril Lavigne recently unveiled her newest “Hello Kitty” music video but it’s nothing like she’s ever done before – and for all the bad reasons.
Lavigne’s latest song, “Hello Kitty” is, perhaps, the worst song in her fifth studio album, Billboard reported.
To make matters worse, the song’s official music video which was made public on YouTube on Tuesday, but was immediately taken down a few minutes later, is said to be an even bigger trainwreck than the song itself.”* Is this simply a parody or is it outright racist? Pop Trigger editor Elle Kuan joins Pop Trigger to break it down.
*Read more here from Fashion Times:
http://www.fashiontimes.com/articles/5573/20140423/avril-lavigne-hello-kitty-music-video-scrutinized.htm
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Comments
100,000,000 Youtube/Vevo views later and the Young Turks look like total fools once again.
Japan Love Avril!
The thing is, the music video depicts a rich white woman parading around hedonistically reveling in stereotypical delicacies, giddily dancing in her seat as she is served sushi, and waving to everyone as she walks through the streets like royalty, as if Japan exists to serve and please a colonialist, glorified tourist. It’s actually more disappointing that Lavigne supposedly spends so much time in Japan, because I feel like she should have a deeper and more developed understanding of Japanese culture than simply these candy-colored caricatures.
Also, she just… abuses the Japanese language. I understand not pronouncing things perfectly – that’s fine, nobody’s perfect and especially not when they’re trying to speak a foreign language. However, what she actually says in Japanese focuses overwhelmingly on “kawaii,” which is practically the Japanese cultural export – but only because foreign cultures (i.e. Non-Japanese cultures) fetishize this idea of “cute” and “infantile” Japanese things – in other words, they like that particular Japanese cultural export because it’s easy to feel superior to it and regard it as quaint and pathetic. This is all not to mention the stereotypical use of “arigatou” by Westerners, since it is typically one of the two only words Westerners know in Japanese… and in true “bro” fashion (if the female form) Lavigne essentially shouts “ARIGATOU” from the rooftops without making any sense or contextual meaning, like a jackass. Why is she saying “arigatou?” Because it’s a Japanese word, not for any good reason.
While on the surface this could all be interpreted as a good thing, because it shows that Avril Lavigne is, at least, saying, “Wow, look at all this cool Japanese stuff! Kawaii!”, it demonstrates an incredibly shallow understanding of the Japanese, like saying, “I just loooove black people, they’re SUCH good ATHELETES.”
The last things I will mention are that the Harajuku scene depicted in her video is really a minority culture in Japan. There is a whole lot more going on in Japan, and the “kawaii” and Harajuku business is a point of moral conflict among the Japanese people – not everyone in Japan thinks they should be glorifying infantilism. The other thing is that: I will simply point out the difference in the expressions of the costumed dancers and the following-crowd during the walk-through-the-streets segment – the dancers have a dehumanized, emotionless expression while the impromptu followers are all excited, curious, wondrous, and smiling, like regular people.
It is not racist. It’s called Hello Kitty, hence the fashion of the video. That it’s cliche? Maybe. But you could say that pretty much about anything – Italian eating pizza, American farmer or ‘cowboy’, Brazilian dancing carnival samba etc. Anyway, we’re not good. I need 3:18 of my life back, though I didn’t finish watching that video. It was a horrible experience. But if youngsters like it, it’s fine, but I’ll reserve my freedom to be old-fashioned in this sense :)
What is racism? The belief that one’s own race is superior to other races; the hatred or intolerance of other races. Avril Lavigne’s video does not appear to demonstrate superiority, hatred, or intolerance of the Japanese culture. The video does contain stereotypes; which can definitely be associated w/ racism, but definitely not in all instances. As Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie pointed out in her 2009 TED talk, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” Lavigne is guilty of only portraying single stories, not racism.
I’m tired of ppl labeling everything as racist: “It’s racist!” “That’s racist!” “She’s Racist!” People play that card all the time to trump their opponents; eventually, “Bullshit!” has to be called—nobody’s hand can be entirely comprised of Aces of Spades. Quit cheating, and call a spade a spade.
P.s. “Call a spade a spade” refers to the proverbial expression (i.e. “tell it like it is”), not the racial term. And yes, I know the expression originally referred to a bloody shovel.
Expressionless Japanese dancers are racist? Seriously?! Robert Plant did it with expressionless white dancers in the 80’s with Simply Irresistible, and no one said it was racist. She used Japanese dancers as she was in Japan, and the were expressionless for the same reason Plant’s were, to bring attention to the artist by contrast. Get over it.
Sorry, meant Robert Palmer.