Details magazine on Gwen Stefani and Fergie
STB (a new MMW contributor!)
The January/February Issue of Details (the same mag that was under fire for its “Gay or …” back-page series when it equated Gay and Asian – this issue’s back page is “Gay or Televangelist”) includes an article about Gwen Stefani and Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas titles “You Ain’t a Homegirl” by Simon Dumenco.
Even though I sometimes roll my eyes at Gwen’s “faux-ghetto shtick,” as Dumenco calls it, I was annoyed that Fergie got grouped in with Gwen as a white girl. Fergie is the recent addition to the multi-culti Black Eyed Peas (other members are various combinations of Black, Latino, Native American, and Asian), and even though Dumenco acknowledges that Fergie’s mixed, he says she’s only “nominally mixed-race” and is “inconveniently, of Mexican and Native American, not African-American, heritage.” [Note from CVK: I wasn’t aware that Fergie self-identifies as mixed. Does anyone have more info on this?]
Dumenco confuses the ethnic issue by defining ghetto as solely black. The thing is that Gwen’s most obvious and bold appropriation of “ethnic” culture was in her video for the song Luxurious (which samples the Isley Brother’s Between the Sheets, though not nearly to the same effect as Notorious B.I.G. did). Gwen goes with a Mexican, cholo-chic theme for this video – wearing a flannel shirt buttoned only at the top and flowers on top of her head that look like a pinata. The fact that Gwen’s bitting off Fergie’s “inconvenient” ethnic side is completely ignored.
Dumenco confuses the ethnic issue even more when he points to Mariah Carey as a counter-point to Gwen and Fergie, who he says is moving from ghetto to glam, a la Marilyn Monroe. As every mixed person knows, Mariah has always been one of our biggest stars. She’s proudly and defiantly identified as mixed, refusing to ignore any part of her Irish, Black and Venezuelan
heritage. But in Dumenco’s black-white-only world, Mariah’s Black and Fergie’s White – a curious application of the one-drop rule.
Merq wrote:
>>Gwen goes with a Mexican, cholo-chic theme for this video – wearing a flannel shirt buttoned only at the top and flowers on top of her head that look like a pinata. The fact that Gwen’s bitting off Fergie’s “inconvenient” ethnic side is completely ignored. < <
You almost make it sound like Gwen was paying homage to Mexican culture. It was downright offensive from where I stood (and I'm black). It was like she changed shoes or something... "OK, the mute Madame-Butterfly-Geisha pets won't work for this song. I need something a little more ghetto.
“I KNOW!!! Why don’t I hang out exclusively with ‘Latino-looking’ people, wear a flannel shirt gangsta-style, beat up pinatas dressed like Chiquita Banana, and get some fake fingernails put in a salon with my new Latina sistren.”
That sounds to me like some serious pandering here. I’m not sure exactly what point you were trying to make (so I may well be attacking a Straw Man here), but I just wanted to make it clear that Luxurious’ wardrobe *alone* is enough to cause concern, and the video should in no way be looked upon approvingly.
Posted 21 Feb 2006 at 7:57 pm ¶
John wrote:
Dumenco’s article was truly lame.
But as for Stefani:
I remember the pre-MTV No Doubt.
Stefani’s style was always a mix of Ska, New Wave and (sub)Urban So Cal.
She’s not faking anything.
Posted 21 Feb 2006 at 9:59 pm ¶
the joy princess wrote:
In a past issue of 17 mag, Fergie discussed maneuvering between her white friends and her Mexican friends when she was growing up. Then she said, “I’m a bit of both.”
I liked Gwen before she hooked up with the likes of Eve and certainly before she started walking around with her harem of American girls (so some sources stated) passing for “authentic Japanese” girls straight out the harajuku district. Lame!
Mariah tries to have her cake and eat it too, playing the ‘tragic mulatto’ annd the ’strong black woman’ role when it suits her. Someone at Essence needed to be clocked over the head for her past cover headline which described her as something like the most misunderstood black woman. Bah humbug!
Posted 22 Feb 2006 at 12:19 am ¶
Merq wrote:
Actually, if memory serves me well, the ones calling Mariah a Tragic Mulatta are pretty-much everyone but her. It’s one thing to recognize the hardships you’ve faced because of people’s narrow-mindedness, and quite another to attribute your life’s failure to being “of a proscribed race.”
I believe she even went as far as to say that she saw Derek Jeter’s (apparently very happy multiracial) family as what hers might have been if they’d lived in a different environment.
Posted 22 Feb 2006 at 9:52 am ¶
Marsha wrote:
Gwen Stefani…where to start with that woman! She’s the queen of cultural appropriation! First, she totally appropriated Indian culture by slapping a bindi on her forehead and walking around with henna on her arms all in appreciation of her ex-boyfriend Tony. (Interesting how she’s not going all crazy mod Mary Quant Brit girl for her husband Gavin- isn’t it?) Funny, it is cool and interesting when a white woman wears a bindi on a her forehead but when an Indian woman wears one, she just gets the “go home to where you came from” speech. Then, Gwen thought she was Jamaican and started to rasta colors. Oh yeah, she was ghetto fab for that Eve video. Now, she’s using “Japanese” girls as well- props or something. And the Luxurious video…ick. I think with the flowers on her head, she was supposed to be copying Frida Kahlo or something.
Posted 22 Feb 2006 at 12:09 pm ¶
the joy princess wrote:
@Marsha..thanks for the reminder. I totally forgot about those previous forays!
Posted 22 Feb 2006 at 3:13 pm ¶
naenae wrote:
mariah carey is not black. she’s mixed race.
Posted 06 Mar 2006 at 11:17 pm ¶
A. King wrote:
I find it absolutely sad and disheartening when such cultural appropriation is allowed in a country as supposedly advanced as America. Not only are Gwen’s antics with the 4 Asian-American girls an equivalent of female-chauvanism, but is also rather racist. She is merely going on stereotypes of cultures, but she never really feels the need to recognize them. She should know that things such as bindis have (if I recall correctly - this is open to correction, however) religious meaning, and Japanese street style is done in direct opposition to the policy of ‘the-nail-that-sticks-up-gets-hammered-down’ attitude that pervades Japan. Not only does she do Japanese style incorrectly, It seems as if she’s attempting to force the stereotype of “Silent…demure…hyper fashion freaks,” when the Japanese are anything but. There is so much more than meets the eye with women of other races, and when she realizes this, maybe more people will pay attention to her.
She needs to stay where she is better acquainted - the Old-Hollywood look. She needs to stay away from ethnic territory.
Posted 18 Apr 2006 at 7:04 pm ¶