Margaret Cho: Harajuku Girls (PC Barf Alert! 'Japanese Schoolgirl Uniform Is Like Blackface')

Margaret Cho Net ^ | 10/31/05

[gopwinsin04]

Gwen Stefani's Harajuku girls have been getting a lot of attention lately, and I have to say that I am confused. I like Gwen Stefani, she's allright. She's very stylish, has a nice voice and a flat stomach. She is a rock star and quite good at it.

Now she has 4 things all together, the Harajuku Girls. I want to like them, and I want to think that they are great, but I am not sure if I can. I mean, racial sterotypes are really cute sometimes, and I don't want to bum everybody out by pointing out the minstrel show.

I think it is totally acceptable to enjoy the Harajuku girls because there are not that many other Asian people in the media and we have to take what we can get. Amos n' Andy had lots of fans didn't they?

At least it is a measure of visibility, which is much better than invisibility. Even though to me, a Japanese schoolgirl uniform is kind of like blackface, I am just in acceptance over it because something is better than nothing.

An ugly picture is better than a blank space, and it means one day we will have another display at the Museum of Asian Invisibilty, that groups of children will crowd around in disbelief, because once upon a time, we weren't there.

[fortunecookie]

Wow, she's really trying hard to be offended.

I think it is totally acceptable to enjoy the Harajuku girls because there are not that many other Asian people in the media and we have to take what we can get. Amos n' Andy had lots of fans didn't they?

Does she really understand what the Harajuku girls in Japan are all about? Does she not get that the whole Japanese schoolgirl uniform thing is really popular - in Japan? So we dis Asians if we enjoy what millions of Japanese are already enjoying? I guess she hasn't heard of Sailor Moon? LOL. And it's lost on her that they are muses, creative and cutting edge. As to the schoolgirl uniform look, guys the world over seem to enjoy seeing ladies dress like that, ladies of all ethnicities.

The girls are her METAPHORICAL muses, you fat stupid lesbian shrew.

Metaphors are lost on Margaret, methinks.

[gopwinsin04]

Gwen has really suceeded at establishing herself as a major solo artist. And quite creatively, I might add!

[Kokojmudd]

blackface on cho would be an improvement. better yet a put a bag over her head. I wonder how often cho visit korea, where she might be mistaken for a steer and turned into a very unappetizing dish of bulgoki?

[gopwinsin04]

Didn't Prince have Lisa, Wendy, Sheila E, Vanity and the dude in the surgeons mask? Plus Appolonia/Kat at one time or another...

[RightWingAtheist]

Actually I understand why Stefani may appeal to lesbians, but inspire hostility amongst liberals. When she married Gavin Rossdale, she married into Bush

[nuconvert]

lol. You're asking me???

[oyez]

Cho wants the Japanese women to go back to the kimono. What's next, burkas?

[oyez]

Cho wants the Japanese women to go back to the kimono. What's next, burkas?

[WhiteGuy]

I think Maggie may have a lesbian girl crush on Gwen and is acting out to get her attention,

I good with that too!

[WhiteGuy]

The Japanese schoolgirl look rocks!

No question!

[stinkerpot65]

Who cares what a short, fat, angry, lesbian Bush-hater thinks?

[expatguy]

ACK!!! Wrong picture Frogjerk!!!

[OpusatFR]

Oh oh. I'd better hide this from my Japanese sister-in-law. She's really down on Koreans..

[numberonepal]

That was a good scroll.

[martin_fierro]

Unnngh.

What an embarassment Cho is.

[fortunecookie]

If anything, if Margaret is intent on making this a racial thing instead of the cultural phenomenon it is, she should be thanking Gwen for bringing a unique aspect of Japanese culture to a more mainstream forum. Some of us had heard of Harajuku girls prior to Gwen, but now, many more people know.

And I think Margaret is wrong, Gwen may or may not be exploiting them like characters in 'blackface' decades ago, but these ladies are her muses, the inspiration for her creativity and they enjoy much the same fame that Gwen herself does.

[gopwinsin04]

I'm glad you liked it, more Harajuku pics to offend the fat ugly korean lesbian!

[ariamne]

I read some of her archived "columns" while I was at her blog. She can't write to save her life and she is NOT funny. She seriously compared Nick Berg and Eugene Armstrong's (and others)barbaric beheadings to how the detainees were "tortured" at Abu Gharaib and said we should understand that we drove Zarqarwi and his henchman to kill because of OUR actions.

Enough. This woman is a fat cow who typifies the idiocy of the liberal lefist. They are appeasing morons whose philosophy will bring only death to our nation and its people.

[Monkey King]

Mom?

[SaltyJoe]

Some Koreans and Chinese (and maybe also the racially mixed Chinese Koreans like M. Cho) may have a long standing hatred for anything Japanese. I wonder if it's the racial tension that sparks Margaret for saying such things? Maybe it's something sexual too?

Perhaps it's mere competition for attention. I think Japanese women are very attractive and most of them are overwhelmingly polite. Blondes are very attractive the Japanese. If Gwen is bringing a new sense of excitement to the public's attention of Japanese women as well as helping some of these gals crawl out of their shells (many Japanese gals are very shy from what I remember...or maybe I'm just intimidating?) then perhaps this is too much for other competitive Asians. They can't knock the new generation of Japanese youths back into a shadow of self-loathing since they aren't responsible for what happened before 1945. So, now the competitors can only mock and disgrace their youth's popular style.





I don't particularly care to be overstimulated or hyper-sexualized via Gwen's style, but I don't think that Margaret Cho has a leg to stand on in insulting her or Harajuku girls.



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Beauty and Cute are not limited to Blonds and Japanese. Here are Korean examples:





























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And here are some Chinese examples of cute and beautiful:



























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Ugly comments discredit the opinionated. It's very easy to find an ugly and unflattering image for such.



Perhaps it's best that Margaret speaks only for herself.