Gwen Stefani used to be that hot girl from school that inexplicably hung out with all the punk rock kids, knew loads about the music and was actually pretty cool, but like all of them she’s left that culture behind and is now married to some asshole Republican country singer.

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Stefani also seems to have left all her punk rock ethics behind and isn’t afraid to make ridiculous claims to whoever is listening, such as saying that she’s Japanese in a recent interview. She was supposed to be talking about her new vegan beauty brand – maybe she is still a little punk rock? – but instead ended up telling the senior editor of Allure magazine – who is American Filipino herself – that she was actually Japanese.

First some context. When Stefani released her first solo album ‘Love.Angel.Music.Baby’, she would always be seen with four Japanese backup singers called the Harajuku girls. Apparently they were contracted to only speak Japanese in public and were renamed Love, Angel, Music and Baby after the album title. That’s not weird and awkward at all right?

Anyway, over the years this has led to accusations of cultural appropriation but thankfully she decided to clarify what was going on in this Allure interview:

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I was  introduced to Japanese culture by her father, who worked at Yahama for 18 years and frequently traveled between California and Japan.

He would return from his travels with stories of street performers cosplaying as Elvis and stylish women with colourful hair.

That was my Japanese influence. And that was a culture that was so rich with tradition, yet so futuristic [with] so much attention to art and detail and discipline and it was fascinating to me.

I got to travel to the Harajuku district as an adult and was enamoured.

I said, ‘My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it.’ … I am, you know.

If [people are] going to criticise me for being a fan of something beautiful and sharing that, then I just think that doesn’t feel right.

I think it was a beautiful time of creativity…a time of the ping-pong match between Harajuku culture and American culture. [It] should be okay to be inspired by other cultures because if we’re not allowed then that’s dividing people, right?

During our interview, Stefani asserted twice that she was Japanese and once that she was ‘a little bit of an Orange County girl, a little bit of a Japanese girl, a little bit of an English girl.

Wow that’s a lot isn’t it? However, I don’t actually think that that much of what she’s saying there is actually that bad and clearly the phrase ‘I’m Japanese’ has been taken slightly out of context.

I don’t think that Gwen Stefani meant that she identified as Japanese or thought that she was ethnically Japanese, but more that the culture spoke to her and she really loved it and wanted to take that influence into her own work. Obviously her saying she’s Japanese is a bit loaded, but I think we all know what she means when you read the rest of the interview and I think everyone probably needs to get a grip over all this because it’s not really anything to get so upset about I don’t think?

I gotta say that it is a bit weird that she made those girls follow her around and only speak Japanese in public, but that’s more just a weird labour requirement rather than cultural appropriation. People need to give Gwen a break on this one, even if she is a bit of a dickhead these days.

For more of the same, check out when Gwen was also recently accused of cultural appropriation for wearing dreadlocks in a music video. She’s really getting it from all angles isn’t she?