Gwen Stefani rejects cultural appropriation claims, addresses her politics

Gwen Stefani is just about to release her fourth solo album, and in honour of that, the ska-pop singer is covering this month's Paper Magazine, where she talked everything from music to politics to culture.

After releasing a music video for her single "Let Me Reintroduce Myself" in January, which was a bit of a throwback featuring everything from her blue hair in the No Doubt days to even her team of Harajuku Girls from her early solo days, Stefani says she's got nothing left to prove – and that's exciting.

"It's really a blessing to be able to have such a long career, where there really is nothing to prove anymore," she tells Paper. "It's a different energy. You know, it's really just about doing it to do it, as opposed to trying to make a statement or make a mark."

After doing her 2018 Las Vegas residency, Stefani reflected, "You make a new record because that's what is exciting for you. But people really just want to hear the records after a while that were the backdrop to their lives, a 'Don't Speak' or a 'Just a Girl' or a 'Hollaback Girl,' or whatever it was for them. So, you know, it's hard — you can only be new when you're new, and that's just the truth, and I know that."

In fact, she's also experienced her fair share of criticism for that era, particularly when it comes to the incredibly questionable use of those Japanese women she called "my Harajuku Girls" as if they might be akin to pets. They included dancers Maya Chino, Jennifer Kita, Rino Nakasone and Mayuko Kitayama.  

In 2004, comedian Margaret Cho described them as a "minstrel show" on her blog, writing, "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 that one day, we will have another display at the Museum of Asian Invisibility, that groups of children will crowd around in disbelief, because once upon a time, we weren’t there."

It's been over 15 years, and we've certainly come a long way in terms of Asian representation – slow it may be. But when asked about the cultural appropriation surrounding her use of Japanese street fashion and those very women, Stefani disagreed, saying, “If we didn’t buy and sell and trade our cultures in, we wouldn’t have so much beauty, you know? 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.”

The singer explains that she was inspired by Japanese culture when No Doubt played and toured there in 1996, and it became her inspiration and goal to return.

"I never got to have dancers with No Doubt," she said. "I never got to change costumes. I never got to do all of those fun girl things that I always love to do. So I had this idea that I would have a posse of girls — because I never got to hang with girls — and they would be Japanese, Harajuku girls, because those are the girls that I love. Those are my homies. That's where I would be if I had my dream come true, I could go live there and I could go hang out in Harajuku."

Stefani goes on to bemoan social media for the "rules" it's placed: "I think that we grew up in a time where we didn't have so many rules. We didn't have to follow a narrative that was being edited for us through social media, we just had so much more freedom."

Stefani also addresses her politics, which many fans had worried drifted to the right since she began a relationship with country singer Blake Shelton who has been speculated to be a Republican.  

But Stefani has her own views, saying, "I can see how people would be curious, but I think it's pretty obvious who I am. I've been around forever. I started my band because we were really influenced by ska, which was a movement that happened in the late '70s, and it was really all about people coming together. The first song I ever wrote was a song called 'Different People,' which was on the Obama playlist, you know, a song about everyone being different and being the same and loving each other. The very first song I wrote."

BEFORE YOU GO: Seth Rogen opens up on comedians and cancel culture

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