Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Why all the hate?

Disclaimer: This post contains opinion!


I have been thinking a lot about this lately, and I thought it was a good subject to bring here.
The fact is that anyone that knows at least a little how this community goes will know that one of the most popular critics is "That's not gyaru!".
There are guides and guidelines in order to become a (good) gyaru. A whole set of rules and do's and dont's.But still, this isn't enough, because from there it borns the "Doing X isn't enough to be gyaru!" discussion. It's not my intention to enter into this topic, as it's been discussed broadly and while I have my opinion like anyone else (opinions are like balls) but it amazes me that this is in fact a subject of discussion. 


I've been in different dressing styles (which belonged to different urban tribes, to call it somehow) and this was never a subject of discussion, so it makes me wonder why.


For instance, I highly doubt that if some guy starts getting interested in punk and listening to punk music and dresses alike to the musicians he listens to, I doubt he'll find anywhere a list of dont's. 
Of course, _every_ urban tribe has its own rules (because doing something and not doing something else it's what caracterizes them), and you probably won't see a goth in pink (or maybe you could, but yanno) or a punk wearing Swarovski decoden (that one is harder to find, right? although there are some approaches, lol).
And, well, every urban tribe has its degree of trueness and competition, but it's not at high and heavy as it happens in gyaru (or j-fashion in general, I dare say).

But... Why does this happen?

One of the first posible reason that I can think of it's because it has no musical background (or not as deep as other subcultures have). It might sound stupid, but if you fail to give the looks, what do you have left? 
The gyaru spirit? Sure. 
We've all come to this discussion in one point or the other. You can be a rebel, you can go against society and the mass media and the rules and averageness and all that stuff without being gyaru, so that attitude might belong to anything else. This wouldn't be like this if there was a musical background. 
Take goths. A teen might not be all dressed up in expensive victorian-ish velvet clothing, but she might listen to all those goth rock bands, and with just a t-shirt with the logo of the group, some jeans and heavy dark make-up there'd be no doubt of what urban tribe she belongs to (or at least her tendency).


Another reason that comes to my mind is that, under the surface, it's a highly competitive fashion. I'm the kind of person who finds it easy to like pretty much everyone and I really don't need much to grow fond of people and care about them (I'm a care bear, lol). I prefer sharing to competing but I know that there are a lot of people who like having adversaries. This is indeed a good way to push you to get better, but you might end up crossing the line of friendly competition to enter the realms of hate, and hate leads to suffering (and it's the path to the dark side).
(yes, this is what appears when you google Gyaru Secrets)

I also think that the fact that it's a japanese fashion is also somewhat of a barrier due to the racial (physical) differences. This might sound silly or wrong, but I really don't mean it in a bad way, but I came up to this conclusion a couple years ago when I made a first attempt at japanese fashion with visual kei. No matter how many make-up tutorials I tried to follow, my eye keept looking different. Then I realized that the crease in my eyelid was the reason of my failure.

I compare my pictures to japanese gyaru's and I fail to see the same. But that's obvious, because no matter how better my skills might get at make-up and hairstyling (at which, by the way, I suck) I will never see the same, since my features are different, for a start. Of course, there are awesome gaijin gyaru who grasp the essence of gyaru, who give you that feeling instantly at a first sight but... 

And finally, I believe that part of it is created by itself. It's like the feed-back creates the fear, the fear of being criticized for not being gyaru enough makes people being more critic ("because... I'm going to be criticized by ... you? you don't even look that gyaru!") and so on, and so on. 


What do you guys think about it?

10 comments:

  1. Hola Maria :)

    Yo llevo muchos años preguntándome lo mismo... todas te dirán lo mismo, que cuando lo cool era hacerte un unifome kogyaru y llevar 4 kittys colgando ya te sentías como la más gal y tan feliz!

    A cualquier chica que viese con pintas de gal en salones, fotologs o donde fuera, le declaraba mi amor eterno, la invitaba a foros y a kdds y me quería hacer amiga suya...

    No sé si es por la gente que se ha ido incorporando o que hay gente que empezó pisando fuerte o que mejoró muy rapidamente o que desde gyaru_fucks o comunidades como every_day gyaru o ricoche empezaron las
    críticas o la mala leche...
    es cierto que el gal no tiene una base músical , parece que se base en otra cosa, hace eones leí una entrevista sobre la competitividad de las gals de las primeras generaciones, decía algo así " si tú eres mona, pero todo el mundo a tu alrededor es mono, tienes que hacer lo que sea por destacar" así nacieron las gonguro, por ejemplo. Fueron las primeras en pasearse en bikini por las ciudades... y bueno, todo es una vuelta de tuerca a veces

    mhmmm... en cuanto a por qué la gente se pisotea entre ella... no lo sé. A veces itentan bajarle los humos a alguien? o se sienten amenazadas por que alguien va a robarles su sueño? como cuando hubo tanto revuelo por ashley, sienna y shaady... parecía que la gente estuviese super enfurecida porque ellas vivían el gal plenamente, aunque no se supo si estaban legalmente o no en el país...

    No sé si tiene algo que ver con lo que planteas en el post...

    A mí me pasa igual! Depende de que tutoriales los puedo copiar y verme favorecida, y depende de que otros más me vale no salir de casa xDDD

    Un beso!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hola guapa!

      Primero de todo gracias por el comment!
      No sabes lo reconfortante que es recoger opiniones elaboradas sobre lo que uno opina.
      Imagino que como en todo los principios y la falta de conocimiento sobre el tema hace que sea mucho más "bajo" el "nivel de exigencia" (dado que no tienes con qué comparar). Vaya, que al fin y al cabo podemos aplicar esto de "La ignorancia es la felicidad" aquí también.

      Lo que dices de la competencia es totalmente cierto, si todo el mundo intenta destacar de alguna forma al final solo se acaba rizando el rizo. Esto me hace preguntarse cómo han acabado muriendo (o casi) algunos de los estilos más extremos. Se harían mayores las chicas que los impulsaron y sus sucesoras han estado influenciadas por otras cosas (total, para aquellas que crecieron con estas cosas no será algo revolucionario sino dated).

      En cuanto al tema de pisotear... Yo diría que tanto en esto como otros ámbitos (el laboral, por ejemplo) el que busca pisarle la cabeza alguien es para estar por encima. No se puede escalar sin subirse a nada y desgraciadamente aquí lo que hay son personas. Más competitividad, como lo veo. Quizá sí que haya algún caso de lecciones personales o similares, pero dudo que la gente sea tan "altruista".

      En fin muchacha, gracias por el comentario otra vez!
      Un beso!

      Delete
  2. I do think exactly the same!
    But I really don't understand why there is so much hate on all 'areas' kind of..
    If there are people/gals who don't like your styling and constantly hate on you and finally there's no response to their hating anymore, they're just trying to make a fuzz about different aspects of your life, whatever that might be..
    It seems to me that there are people in this community who just get off by hating other people and this is just gross in my opinion.
    That's something I really hate about it.
    But I like the style too much to just quit.. although I've already thought about it.

    I was also more into vk before.. and there were also some people who thought they'd be the greatest elitists in styling.. but they just ignored you when you were 'not worthy enough'. lol
    But I really think it was much more relaxed there.

    Always looking different to you idols is also something I needed to realize like you. xD
    But anyways, I guess it's okay because it's no shame to not be Japanese, haha.

    All in all I'm also a very calm and peacful person and the constant hate and fighting just because of some freakin' make up or clothes is just.. no for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You shouldn't quit just because some people are assholes!
      You could just don't share it on the internet or whatever, but still, I usually think that if you're a good person, humble and caring, you shouldn't really get haters nor hate (shit happens, ofc, but yanno).

      Anyway, what you said about vk is just right, they don't bash beginners right away and just ignore them. Could it be because they're less "fearful" of being exceeded by them? I'm just rambling, I don't really think it's because of this but more because it's a... habit maybe.

      And yes, in the end clothes and make-up are a simple thing to have a fight about, it's just not worth it.

      Thanks for your comment!<3

      Delete
  3. I think you look very gyaru... I'm not one myself, so I might not know the deep intricacies, but when I first found your blog and saw your picture I thought "Yep, gyaru."
    But you're right, all that competition often leads to something vicious. Many people don't know how to be friendly-competitive anymore, it's sad. There really should be more helpful and kind communities, not only for gyaru, but in general. At least as long as there's still people like you, there's hope :3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, thanks for your words!
      Sometimes we're more demanding with ourselves than with anyone else!

      And I believe it's really like this, hate can't bring anything good. Anything but more hate. We've got to break the circle!

      Delete
  4. La gente que se empeña es buscar fallos y defectos en los demás muchas veces se lo debe a una baja autoestima que busca menospreciar y reducir a los demás, para así sobresalir esa persona. Tal vez me equivoque, pero por ahora esa es la conclusión que saco.

    Cada uno es como es.

    Y sobre la base musical ni idea. Yo lo de gustos musicales siempre lo he llevado a parte del estilo de vestir... No se. La música tiene que ver con la ropa? No creo. Pero sí tal vez tengas razón en lo referente al "mundillo" de una tribu urbana/estilo, que suele englobar varios hobbies o gustos.

    Y por último decir que una persona no se debería de "hacer" de un estilo. Se supone que la persona es como es, y de ahí que busque el estilo más apropiado a su forma de ser. Pero vamos, que por unas o por otras, en muy pocos casos se cumple eso.

    Coñe!! Que hay que ser quien uno es! No lo que dicte la etiqueta! òwó

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hola!! yo creo que tienes razon. Nunca he entendido el odio que hay en el mundo gyaru.
    Yo por ejemplo, jamás he sido una "buena gyaru" ni mucho menos, pero hace ya unos 3 años empezó a interesarme este estilo de vida. Empezé a practicar e intentar definir mi estilo, tengo fotos que reconozco que se me ve gyaru, y aunque no habré sido muy buena en esto como digo, pero estoy segura de que hubiese podido mejorar mucho si me lo hubiese propuesto seriamente. Pero la verdad, es que cada vez que leia ciertos comentarios, veia ciertas cosas como el peloteo que existe, el cotilleo, el ir a hacer daño, el interés... me empezó a dar mucha pena. Además como no soy nada competitiva, decidí ir mas a mi bola, ir de gyaru cuando podia y nisiquiera me tomaba la molestia de hacerme fotos para colgarlas en facebook/blog para que todo el mundo las viera porque pasaba....Tambien reconozco que el hecho de ser madre (falta de tiempo/dinero..)no me ha dejado adentrarme mas en este mundo.
    Sinceramente si todas se unieran (parece que ultimamente hay mas unión entre las gyaru españolas, pero sigue habiendo la competencia mala y las puñaladas..)todo iria mucho mejor.
    Yo no sé si regresaré a ello, y mira que tengo pelucas, lenses, lashes y todo el "material" necesario, pero cuando veo esas cosas se me quitan las ganas, de verdad. Además que una ya va cumpliendo años...

    saludos!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think you make a good point about music. I think music really unites people and fashion. Gyaru is unique because it's only a fashion.

    I am always disappointed when I find out that a gyaru I like listens to horrible music. Haha!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ikr?!

      Well, there's always para/tra/tech-para, but I wouldn't say it's one of the main points in gyaru (even if over time I've found that it's more important than I thought at first).

      Anyway, I guess this is another point that makes it unique and more diverse, more plural than if everyone listened to the same stuff, even if it means being more divided.

      Delete

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