Throughout my research practice of trying to understanding Ko-Gyaru I kept coming across more and more articles discussing the regression in the movement. I guess like any trend it either dies or morphs and develops into something else. When I think of all the different fashion fads I went through I cant think of any of them lasting longer than a year. From fringes to wearing odd socks (yeah that’s right I used to purposefully wear odd socks thinking it was cooler). However this fashion statement and movement of Gyaru lasted over 20 years, which I think is super impressive. Looking more into this decline its not so much a decline but a change.
When the movement began they stood for women and power, standing up against social norms and institutionalisation however as the trend got larger and more mainstream this statement became more materialistic and normal. What the original KO-Gyaru was standing for didn’t exist anymore. The trend became ‘too popular’. It “Became so popular that every store stocked its style loosing its uniqueness and individuality”(universal doll). Tokyo fashion.com argues it has now become “about marketing an “image” not about anything with substance behind it, “gyaru” is on its way to becoming just another marketing term used to help companies sell more product” (Tokyo fashion.com).
The Gyaru culture has been making a come back through the new unit black diamond. Egg magazine launched a sister publication foxy egg that runs several features on black diamond. “The basic goals of the group are simple – to support each other through shared interests, to make friends, and to promote kuro kyaru fashion and culture both inside of Japan and abroad.” (Tokyo fashion.com)
KoGyaru have many different looks and styles, the more I investigated the more I found. Something I noticed when exploring the different styles of dress of Gyaru is that they are western inspired, some were specifically music inspired, punk, RNB or reggae as seen below.
Even though these looks are inspired by western culture they are different from anything western I have seen they have created their own hybrid, something that is completely unique to Japanese culture. Maruyama also discusses the inspiration of Gyaru and how it’s turned into something different and special they “wanted to look like black people but in the process have created something completely new”, a style that was influenced by western cultures has become recognisably Japanese. Below are some more of the different types of KoGyaru.
Ganguro
They love fake tan, bleaching their hair and wearing extremely bright fashion.
Hime Gyaru
Translating to princess, going for a more ‘cute’ look lots of whites and pinks
Was one that I found interesting. They are known as ‘dirty Gyaru’, they are referred to as this because they do not wash. Maintaining the Gyaru lifestyle and constantly purchasing hair, makeup and tanning products can be expensive so OGyaru to save time and money they don’t wash.
Above is a photo of the loose socks and shortened skirt look of the Kogal Gyaru in Television series phenomenon Pokémon, showing evidence of Gyaru’s influence on media and popular culture. “What started with a group of girls hanging out in Shibuya district, ended in complete media frenzy” (Koeste, 2012). Kogal’s were both loved and loathed by the media, the media was shocked but also fascinated by this subculture. What I found interesting was the way they used media as a tool to promote their fashion trends using magazines and other media types as a way of announcing the trends that all kogals needed to follow to maintain kogal status, which helped develop a sense of subcultural identity.
This new generation of magazines was targeted at high school girls included publications such as Egg, Cawaii, Happie, Tokyo Street News, Zettai Suki Suki, Heart Caitdy, and Street Jam. Egg being the most well known platform, Beginning in 1995, which included Kogals on its editorial staff, the magazine was comprised of schoolgirls submitting photos, essays and drawings which developing into a product orientated magazine however still includes pages of uncensored girls’ letters, e-mail messages, open-forum commentaries, amateur essays, minipolls, self-help columns, and annotated photographs (Miller, 2004). These platforms were like the do’s and don’t’s for Gyarus. We definitely had magazines like this in Australia, dolly or girlfriend were pretty big when I was a young teen I remember sitting around with friends we used to love going through the self help sections (I think it made us feel mature reading the sections about sex and boy friends). They also included fashion advice and posters of cute boys. I’m not too sure of these magazines popularity now.
Koeste (2012) looks at the importance of language used between Gyaru’s. Koeste (2012) went on exchange in a Japanese highschool and noticed the importance of the language they used with each other as an identifying tool of who was a true kogal and who was ‘fake’. She discusses the way they would shorten words or make hybrid words combing Japanese and English, also looking at the role of technology in this development. When I was in year 9 I received my first mobile phone as a birthday present (This was super exciting at the time especially because i was one of the last of my friends to get one). Prior to having a mobile phone we had MSN and MySpace as our technological ways of communicating. We developed slang and shortened words such as BRB, ROFLE, LOL, WTF and more. These abbreviations moved across into our real life conversations. Which is what Koeste (2012) refers to when she discusses how technology shaped Kogals real life language and how their language “affected the discourse of “women’s language” in Japan” (Koeste, 2012).
I was in high school from 2008 till 2013, when I look back and think of all the trends, in terms of clothes and technology it makes me wonder about the different cultural statements we were trying to make. I think when your going through adolescence and puberty your not quite an adult however you feel like one, and have enough authority over your life to “do whatever you want” (at least that’s what we thought) and when society tries to oppress these feelings and attitudes rebellion is a result.
For me to understand the Japanese fashion trend I wanted to find out why it started, what was the statement these young women were trying to make. The original style of the Japanese KoGyaru/Gyaru movement was Kogal referring to high school girl uniforms that were made their own by the Kogals. Altering there uniforms to “Suggest laxness: a contradiction of the formal expectation that school girls should be impeccably neat and perfectly pure” (Kinsella, 2002). This included; shortening skirts, wearing loose socks; using elements of the way they dressed, spoke and behaved to show off their cool and relaxed attitude. A phase in life that I think every high school girl went through no matter the countries culture, when I look back at photos of me in school all the skirts were so short, I remember my parents always making comments saying, “it looks like your wearing a headband for a skirt” or “ any tighter and you’ll cut off your circulation”. Funnily enough comments that now when I look back totally agree with. Our dress code was not all that strict but we still did small things to rebel, we would wear bright coloured headbands or bright socks even painting our nails to make our uniform our own. I think it was our way of making sure people new we were growing up and “could do and wear whatever we wanted” a similar attitude to that of the ‘Gals’. However growing up in Australian culture the rules were already pretty relaxed compared to that of japan, making our small rebellions less of a statement then Gyaru’s.
From the ages of 13-18 everyone is just trying to find their place in society but at the same time wanting to rebel from social norms and people of authority to establish independence. At a glance Gyrau, or “Gals” look completely materialistic and fake, obsessed with how they look and getting boys to like them. However at a closer look they are a female movement empowering change. The post war development of japan focused on being highly disciplined and military-esk. How they spoke dressed and behaved was about impressing and presenting a sense of national power to those watching internally and externally (Kinselia, 2002). In the 90s the ‘Gal’ subculture emerged, this group of females were making a statement, challenging longstanding norms of adolescent femininity (Miller, 2004). “High-school girls were fascinating because they appeared to hold the key to what was happening in society on a subjective level” (Kinselia, 2002). They were considered a new force resisting institutionalisation, portrayed as a post feminist movement.
KoGyaru is the original name of this movement that began in the 90s in japan in the city of Shibuya. Gyaru translating in english to ‘Gals’. This 5 piece blog series is using an autoethnographic research method to present my journey/story in understanding this Japanese subculture. “An autobiography should be aesthetic and evocative, engage readers, and use conventions of storytelling such as character, scene, and plot development” (Ellis, 2011).
I was born in Australia, to Australian parents in 1996 so by the time I was born this movement was already at peak popularity. These blogs will explore this Japanese fashion trend and the culture surrounding it from an Australian perspective. When I began my journey to understand the subculture that is KoGyaru I thought it would just be another fashion trend that was materialistic and nothing more than aesthetically interesting. the clothes they wear are something that I would never wear or see someone wearing in Australia I thought it would be difficult to compare to Australian clothing. But as I dove into research I had an epiphany moment that it wasn’t about the clothes but the statement that the clothes made in society. Which is definitely something that happens in all cultures. It may not be the same style but it makes the same statement.
“The concept and method called auto-ethnography is an attempt at practicing this self-reflexivity by having a closer look at one’s own longings and belongings, with the familiarity that—when viewed from a distance—it can change one’s perspective considerably.” Christiane Kraft Alsop (2002) looks at this idea that reflecting on personal experiences in relation to new experiences of culture and how this can change ones perception. At the time when watching the film my reactions were confused and a little frustrated, as I wasn’t connecting with the content (as I knew zip about e-sports), however as the film went on I was forced to locate elements of the film I found interesting. The experience changed and became more enjoyable and I was intrigued with the lives that these gamers lived. This world was so far from my own and I think the fact that I was confused by it is what made…
I am defiantly not a gamer, nor do I know very much about gaming so the documentary state of play showed an entirely new world to me. At first I thought here we go this is going to be real boring. However the film didn’t so much focus on the game but the emotions, relationships and different roles the culture of StarCraft impacted. Ellis describes autoethnography as analysing ones own personal experiences to understand cultural experiences, it “allows writers to make events engaging and emotionally rich.” this methodology embraces the fact that it is impossible to be completely subjective when writing about another’s culture. Which I think is a really interesting that the reader upfront is informed of the probable bias in the writing.
My lack of knowledge about the world of e-sports and StarCraft influenced the way I viewed the film. When looking at my personal experience of being…
I think the above meme depicts a conversation that has gone down in nearly every household at some point or another. Trying to make one feel bad about another’s situation so that we feel thankful for our own. This seems pretty harmless right? but poverty porn is a thing and the manipulation of underprivileged people for privileged peoples entertainment is very much real. Poverty porn put very simply refers to the exploitation of an experience to gain attention.
The main issue of poverty porn is, is it necessary? As humans to gain an active response do we need to see these types of images of people at they’re most vulnerable, invading there privacy and respect for it to take affect with us? We live in an attention economy where the media will go to extreme lengths to keep readers and people buying.
The coverage of the execution of photojournalist James Foley is a classic example of the media showing a lack of respect for him and his family. His sister made a statement saying to respect her brother and pleading for people not to watch or share the video however the media went ahead and posted photos, putting it on their front pages. Proving once again that gaining our attention is more important than our rights as human beings.
Another example is a case of a homeless man from Sydney called Max who had his photo taken on the street for a newspaper article. At this time some influential people were having their say about how homeless people were ruining the reputation of Sydney. Because of this photo Max was now recognisable and became a target. He was assaulted shortly after the article was published.
So what should journalists do instead of exploiting the poor or underprivileged? A question the Huffington post asked, their answer being that there is no answer? There can be no simple answer for an issue as complex as poverty. My simple (and somewhat naïve) answer as corny as it may be is to just treat others how you would want to be treated and treat humans like what they are…human beings!
Selfies, the world phenomenon where one does not simply just take a photo of oneself, but must filter, edit and capture their best self, or so society tells us. Selfies have created a new culture, thanks to social networks such as instagram and Facebook. Selfies have generated a cultural shift where we look at ones online self to determine status or value. Bernie Hogan talks about these ‘online exhibitions’ we create for ourselves, “Social media frequently employs exhibitions, such as lists of status updates and sets of photos, alongside situational activities, such as chatting.” Hogan discusses the notion that we are curating our lives. This online culture has immensely affected our offline culture and the way we view our selves as well as how we view others.
Late last year (2015) Essena O’neil’s (the social media micro celebrity) video went viral where she stated she was deleting her instagram and declared social media is not “real life”. The video went into detail of the lengths she went to in curating what she believed was ‘the perfect candid life’ and what efforts she would undergo to gain ‘likes/follows’. She also explained in the video how unhappy she was with herself as all she did all day every day was compare herself to others (as this was her job). The video did receive a fair bit of criticism however the story as a whole of a young girl being consumed by social media is an extremely pressing issue especially among people who are young and vulnerable.
By comparing ourselves to celebrities and this new rise of micro celebrities (thanks to social networking sites like instagram) we all want the life of others and try to portray the life that we want others to see we have. Triple Js hack live on body obsession highlights the physical and mental harm one can develop by comparing our own lives to others on social media looking specifically at body shamming due to instagram. An article by Emily Tanner (2015) also provides evidence for the harm that instagram can cause, among women with low self-esteem.
But of course we are going to curate our own lives if we can right? We aren’t going to share with the world us first thing in the morning with bed hair and bags under our eyes. We want to post just as cool, interesting or pretty photos as the ones we see in our newsfeed. What’s ironic is that if we are curating our lives trying to control what others see and the perceptions our social media might present of us, how much control do we really have?
There are people and pages on social media that are trying to take back control and go against the selfie norm. For example Christina Balch challenges the norm by taking selfies when she first wakes up in the morning (called the awake project). She does this in the morning because she’s half asleep and judges that she’s not conscious enough to conduct an image, she believes this is a true image and representation of herself. In her TED talk she discusses how liberating this makes her feel.
After watching Balch examine how liberating this project made her feel I decided to take a selfie a day first thing when I wake up…so below is the “real” me. (Warning they aint pretty but your welcome)
Below is my project and reflection, Ive put all the videos below so you can watch in sequence (and hopefully make it easier for all) enjoy 🙂
Video’s
DIGITAL STORY TELLING REFLECTION
For my digital story telling project I underwent a documentary style ethnographic study looking into the effects that mobile phones and smart devices have on our relationships. I wanted to look at the impact our device usage has on media audience and place within the social environment we interact in. The short films were made with the hope of gaining some insight into the implications of mobile phone usage on our personal lives. According to a study done by the Telegraph UK (2012) “if a mobile phone is visible during a conversation it causes people to feel less positive towards the person whom they are chatting” providing evidence that mobile phones are having a damaging effect by just their presence.
Before I began the interviewing and filming process I did some research into the topic so I could narrow down what I what I wanted to focus on for the interviews. Judith Bell (2014) discusses the steps one should undergo when completing a research project, the first 2 steps being; select a topic and identify objectives of your study. The topic I decided to focus on is the impact of mobile phones on our relationships. The objectives of my study is to create a dialogue both in the interviews and with my audiences about how much of an impact mobile phones have on our personal relationships, and whether this answer changes between different demographics.
Judith Bell (2014) suggests planning your projects schedule and scope. Emphasising the necessity of creating an implementing this schedule. Each week I interviewed a different individual developing the story line that evaluates the impact that mobile phones have on our lives. There are already many studies out there looking at the issues of mobile phone usage in social environments. Lee Rainie and Katheryn Zickuhr (2015) in their article look at the role our mobile devices play in social interactions and the social etiquette of using phones in public spaces “many Americans view as harmful and distracting to group dynamics…. 89% said that they used there phone during the most recent social gathering they attended” (Lee Rainie and Katheryn Zickuhr, 2015).
The research I discovered on this topic prior to the interviews was commonly sourced from journal articles and online newspaper articles. Therefore, the aim of my digital project was to steer away from conventional research and present my study in a light that captivates my audience. I chose the platform YouTube as the medium to present my research due to“ you tubes rapid rise, diverse range of content, and public prominence…make it useful for understanding the evolving relationships and new media technologies” (Jean Burgess, Joshua Green, 2009). YouTube is a platform of participatory culture moving outside the affordances of digital technologies and their ability to enable active cultural participation. This participatory culture that YouTube creates is perfect for my project as I aim to create a dialogue with my audiences about their media usage and how it is affecting their personal relationships.
The interview process admittedly went better than I thought it would as I was interviewing people outside of the subject and I was unsure of their knowledge on the issue however I discovered throughout this project that this is an issue that everyone has an opinion on and something that all interviewees had thought about previously. This is a topic that affects us all in a big way and therefor something that people are willing to have conversations about. The digital video might effectively remind audiences that mobile activity must never replace face-to-face communication as the impact this can have on relationships is damaging. As well as this, my video might prompt one to think about the space and place as more then just a geographic location in reference to their mobile phone usage.
Some difficulties I faced were mainly during the film editing process, as I’m a ‘beginner’ so the films didn’t turn out exactly how I first imagined and the process took a lot longer than anticipated, however I am still happy with the end result. Overall, this project successfully heightened my project management skills as I was subjected to implementing schedules for the interviewing, filming and editing process. I gained a deeper understanding of phones/devices and their influence on audience and place. This project has also helped me to develop a sound knowledge for creating an engaging digital video.
References
Jean Burgess, Joshua Green, 2009, ‘YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture’
Judith Bell, 2014, ‘Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time Researchers’
Telegraph UK , 2012, ‘Putting a mobile phone on the restaurant table will ruin your meal’
Lee Rainie and Katheryn Zickuhr, 2015 ‘Americans’ Views on Mobile Etiquette’
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