Institutional Racism in Pop Culture-
In this blog I wanted to touch
on the impact that artists, their music and their music videos- particularly in
pop culture- have on stereotypes and racism. The youth of today look up to pop
culture and popular artists, and aspire to be like them. Today’s artists have a
big influence on the beliefs and values of teenagers all across the world, and
so it is extremely important that their music and music videos give off the
right message, and portray people in a culturally sensitive and appropriate manner. Music
videos often play to the many stereotypes that exist of different ethnicities
and cultures all over the world and boundaries are constantly being stretched,
and as a result there are some rather controversial music videos out there.
One video in particular that
came to mind is Avril Lavigne’s “Hello
Kitty”. This music videos caused
quite a stir when it was released, and is controversial because of the way it portrays
Japanese culture, and uses negative stereotypes to represent Japanese women.
Avril Lavigne’s Hello Kitty was criticised for showing a
complete lack of awareness of Japanese culture, and despite the fact that it
was directed and
choreographed by Japanese people, there is an obvious use of Orientalism within
the Orientalist stereotypes who in this video, were made to look “robotic,
expressionless and completely interchangeable”, meanwhile Avril Lavigne is centred in the foreground, prancing, completely
oblivious to the overt racism within her video. The dancers are stripped of
individuality and personality which labels Japanese women “homogeneous,
submissive and childlike.” What’s even worse is that at the same time Avril is acting
out every Japanese stereotype possible. One article I read about her video said
that Billboard criticised her “vaguely offensive troop” of dancers, and said
that “others have been less measured, calling it “creepy/racist” and “an early
front runner for the racist music video of the year award” on Twitter. Her
attempt at speaking Japanese in the video, to me, seemed totally absurd, and
the scene in which she is given sushi and appears to be overly excited by it, comes
across as if she is mocking this aspect Japanese culture. The whole video is very stereotypical to say the least. Of
course Avril responded in defence of her song, saying “I love Japanese culture
and I spend half of my time in Japan. I
flew to Tokyo to shoot this video specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my
Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND a Japanese director IN Japan.” She
was probably trying to appeal to her Japanese fan base with this video, but to
me, her rebuttal is irrelevant, and the way she almost fetishizes Japanese
culture is a mockery of Japanese culture and Japanese women. I don’t
think this video in any way pays homage to Japan, Japanese culture or people of Japanese ethnicity.
I actually love Avril Lavigne and her music usually, but when I heard this song and watched the music video for it, it caused me so much frustration, and I was really annoyed that she had produced something so culturally insensitive.
What does everyone else think about this issue of racism in pop culture??
