Gyaru is NOT blackface. (a better essay)

Introduction

Lately, as the fashion rule of "If its more than 10 years old, its cool again" and the questionable appreciation of Asian culture, aN almost dead fashion style and social movement has came back, a style made not by the companies or industries, but the young girls frustrated by the strict japanese society: Gyarus.

I would like to re-do my previous version of this essay, and expand it to more than just vaguely anwsering a question. 

I would also like to appreciate the people who gave me feedback; it was my first essay and, while I admit I did it very quickly, i think it is good enough to simply add some new content, specially in the lower half of the essay.

1. Gyaru Definition and a little bit of History

"Gyaru (Japanese: ギャル) pronounced [ɡʲa̠ꜜɾɯ̟ᵝ], is a Japanese fashion subculture. The term gyaru is a Japanese transliteration of the English slang word gal."

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyaru

Gyaru is a fashion style, typically put under the category of Japanese street fashion, also known as *Harajuku street fashion (tho gyaru fashion is not originated in Harajuku). It shined its brightest during the 90s and early 00s, but was able to keep up until the mid 2010s.

It is characterized by breaking the japanese beauty standard, where beauty is white and clear skin, round and "european" eyes, black hair, etc..

 While there are some long-lasting gyaru communities, they are not as common, since the og icons in their 30s-40s by now.

This style started to get popular thanks to their appearance everywhere around Tokyo around this time, and also due to the growing popularity of egg, a japanese magazine centered around gyaru fashion.

This photos should give you a clear idea of how japanese standards wre opposite to gyarus of the time.

                 regular japanese standard magazine              gyaru fashion magazines

While there isnt an anwser to how this style appeared due to the fact it is and urban person-to-person type of fashion during its start, there are some theories:

"It all started with the Kogyaru(1991): school girls with brown hair, short schoolgirl skirts, and slightly tanned skin clutching European luxury bags and wearing Burberry scarves and loose socks. They were from well to do families and most often attended private schools. The Kogyaru started out as being the girlfriends of the party organisers and bad boys. These gals were seen as party girls and lust objects (partly because of their shortened school uniform skirts)." 

source: https://gyarubaby.blogspot.com/2014/06/gal-history.html

"Athough it has not been fully confirmed, some people say that the term gal became popular when Wrangler released women's jeans called "Gals" in 1972.
In 1978, a Japanese fashion information magazine for girls called "GAL'S LIFE'' was first published. This magazine introduced the culture of women in the West Coast of the United States, and included punk rock music, along with other genres like new wave and indie. However, the magazine had nothing to do with Japan's gyaru culture"

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyaru

"The theory goes that with the appearance of singers who broke the stereotypes of pale skin and natural black Japanese hair, by appearing with platforms, false nails and eyelashes, mini skirts, perfect makeup, etc., motivated teenage girls to start imitating that style, in the 1980s many young Japanese girls imitated that daring and sexy aesthetic to the point that Namie Amuro became an idol for the ganguro, and later Ayumi Hamasaki became the same for the ganjiro."

source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal_(Jap%C3%B3n) (translated with DeepL)

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2. Blackface allegations

2.1. Blackface

"Blackface is the practice of non-black performers using burnt cork or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment."

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface

I am not black, therefore my opinion over the harm it causes for white people's perception of black people and black people's perception of themselves is not as valid, but, as far as i know, it is considered to be racist, as it makes a caricature out of black people and their oppressed culture. This practice was mainly done in Europe and the USA; while it did occur is some Asian countries, it was not as extended in the east of the continent.

"By objectifying formerly enslaved people through demeaning, humor-inducing, stock caricatures, "comedic performances of 'blackness' by whites in exaggerated costumes and make-up, [could not] be separated fully from the racial derision and stereotyping at its core"."

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface

2.2. Ganguro

"Ganguro (ガングロ) is an alternative fashion trend among young Japanese women which peaked in popularity around the year 2000 and evolved from gyaru."

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganguro

Ganguro is a much more extreme Gyaru, with darker tanning and much more extreme makeup as well as clothing and hairstyles.

 It is one of the oldest Gyaru subgenres, and probably started some time after the creation of the word "Gyaru" itself (Gyaru as in the style, and not the word refering to "girl" in romaji)

The controversy is due to the fact that, as Gyaru fashion became much more popular in the western TikTok community, and people rediscovered this specific subgenre, according to some people's criteria, it resembled Blackface.

I really dont blame western people for this immidiate assumption, not only for our huge history with racial discrimination, but also for the knowledge japanese societymbeing quite racist towards non-european people, and not considering prettyness in other ethnicities.

The hate also went towards an even more extreme example, also known as Yamamba, in which the skin is extremely tanned, and could resemble the skin color of black people, although not intended.

2.3. So.. BlackFace or not BlackFace??

While for some people it might resemble blackface, it is NOT, here is why

Gyaru/Ganguro's origins are not related at all with black people or racism. As mentioned before, gyaru fashion goes against japanese beauty standards, not black people, which are not even present in japanese society, most of the time. 

It would also be great to mention that Gyaru fashion has inspirations and japanese interpretations of american fashion from the time, which includes tanning. This can be easily proved by comparing american fashion and gyaru fashion from the time and seeing somwhat of an inspiration.

As mentioned when talking about blackface, while japanese society does stigmatize black people, they did not practice blackface, probably due to the extremly small amount of black people in the country, both at the time, and historially.

Oh and lets not forget that Japanese people are not porcelain white, and they do not only have a wide skin range like any other people, but they can get pretty dark with tanning, because the average japanese person is not a jpop idol.

As simple as that.

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The End

Just like last time, it is late af so imma go sleep, and hope i improved some things, as well as explaining them with much more detail :3

*Harajuku is a distric in Shibuya, Tokyo. Its known for its youth fashion.