a commentary on gwen stefani and her use of the harajuku girls:

"They shadow her wherever she goes. They're on the cover of the album, they appear behind her on the red carpet.... she, meanwhile, likes to pretend that they're not real but only a figment of her imagination. They're ever present in her videos and performances -- ...simpering behind fluttering hands or bowing to Stefani. That's right, bowing. Not even from the waist, but on the ground in a "we're not worthy, we're not worthy" pose. She's taken Tokyo hipsters, sucked them dry of all their street cred, and turned them into China dolls.

Stefani fawns over harajuku style [of individual self-expression and independence and rebellion] in her lyrics, but her appropriation of this subculture makes about as much sense as the Gap selling Anarchy T-shirts; she's swallowed a subversive youth culture in Japan and barfed up another image of submissive giggling Asian women."

i guess i could be horrified by this reversion of using the image of an independent, expressive, rebellious icon into a submissive asian stereotype, but i'm just wondering why.