Ganguro
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Ganguro (ガングロ?) is a fashion trend among Japanese girls which peaked in popularity around the year 2000, but remains in evidence today. It is an offshoot of chapatsu hair dyeing. The Shibuya and Ikebukuro districts of Tokyo are the center of ganguro fashion.
The basic look consists of bleached hair, a deep tan, both black and white eyeliners, false eyelashes, platform shoes (usually sandals or boots), and brightly-colored outfits. Also typical of the "Ganguro Gal" look are cell phones covered with purikura stickers, tie-dyed sarongs, mini-skirts, hibiscus flower hairpins, and lots of bracelets, rings and necklaces.
Extreme trend followers further bleach their hair to a platinum blond shade, get even deeper tans, wear white lipstick, multicolored pastel eyeshadows and tiny metallic or glittery adhesives around the bottom rim of the eye sockets (See Yamanba). Popular Ganguro magazines include Egg, Popteen, and Ego System.
In an interview [citation needed] with Tony Barrell, Shoichi Aoki, the creator of FRUiTS magazine, stated: "Ganguro was a phenomenon that was specific to Shibuya, about 1km away from Harajuku—which we have been talking about—and they were totally different so FRUiTS as a rule didn’t really take them up. Only a few times we’ve covered ganguro in our magazine. Where they came from is actually a mystery, no one really knows but there is some speculation that they were girls who were infatuated or fascinated with Janet Jackson or black American musicians or perhaps Naomi Campbell, the supermodel, but it’s still a mystery what their origins were."
Some observers speculate as to who these ganguro are "meant" to look like. Some say that because of the blonde hair, hibiscus flowers, and extremely tan skin, they want to look like America's west coast girls. [citation needed] A handful of others believe it is an obsession with being black, and even compare it to the blackface of the early 1900s in the United States.[citation needed] A more nuanced explanation is that the Ganguro girl is a unique style evolved from Japan's own original culture in response to the infiltration of Western pop culture. Like certain subcultures in the West, the style may be a form of self-expression in opposition to conservative mores.
There is also some dispute surrounding the etymology of the word "ganguro". Some academics claim that the name derives from the word ganguro (顔黒? black face), but ganguro practitioners invariably say it derives from the phrase gangankuro (ガンガン黒? exceptionally dark).[citation needed]
Ganguro are almost always portrayed negatively by the Japanese media.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Klippensteen, Kate, and Everett Kennedy Brown (photographer). Ganguro Girls: The Japanese "Black Face". Cologne: Koenemann, 2001. ISBN 3-8290-7926-5.
- Blackfaces, Witches, and Racism Against Girls, by Sharon Kinsella, in Bad Girls of Japan, edited by Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley, Palgrave, 2005.
