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Gwen Stefani Did Not Wear Dreadlocks In ‘Light My Fire’ Video, Says Stylist: ‘We Talked About Cultural Appropriation’

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Gwen Stefani

In the wake of the onslaught against Gwen Stefani over the hairstyle she sported in Sean Paul’s Light My Fire music video, Savannah Baker, the designer and stylist for the video, has dismissed assertions that the No Doubt frontwoman was sporting dreadlocks, or was “culturally-appropriating”.

Since Wednesday’s release of the Light My Fire video, which also features Shenseea, news outlets such as CNN and NY Post have reported that Stefani had arrogated the Afrocentric hairstyle, this after a myriad of African Americans, including some prominent ones on Twitter, began accusing her of appropriating Black culture for personal gain.

However, according to Baker, in the video, “what Gwen is wearing is not a locs”, but a rather “fishtail braids” which she describes as a “very white side of hair braids”.  In addition, Savannah said she opted for a “Punk look” for Gwen, and “not a strictly Jamaica roots.”

Stefani has, over the years, faced numerous accusations of engaging in habitual cultural appropriation. Baker explained that prior to deciding on the look, she had engaged in a lengthy conversation with Stefani about cultural appropriation, and had also consulted several Jamaicans on the matter.

“I spoke with various Jamaicans before (to ask) ‘can she have some Jamaican colors in?’ and we all said ‘Jamaica loves her and she always represented it from the get go.’ Stay away from Rasta (culture) and be more Jamaica. It’s a big up to Jamaica, more positive,” she said in her explanation.

Known also as herring-bone braid, fishtail braids are done with one single large braid, akin to a ponytail, with the plait being the only difference.  Upon close inspection, what Gwen Stefani sports in the video, is really extremely thin fishtail braids that appear to mimic dreadlocks, and so, upon a cursory glance, could be mistaken for dreadlocks.

However, Baker insists that the hairstyle is “absolutely not” dreadlocks, but that “people are just jumping on it”.

“And I think cultural appropriation is good to be aware of but also goes too far and people get obsessed with it and make a deal out of everything but it’s not locs. It’s fishtail braids,” she emphasized.

According to Baker, the hairstylist who created Gwen’s hairstyle is a black Jamaican woman, who has worked with the Underneath It All singer for many years.

“Her hairstylist has worked with her for many years.  We discussed it; she felt comfortable doing it.  And she is Jamaican.  It’s not like she is a white hairstylist doing it, so she (Gwen) had myself as a Jamaican, her hairstylist as a Jamaican, she had my team which was largely Jamaican, she had Sean and Sean’s team is largely Jamaican and everyone felt ok with it,” she said.

Bounty Killer Defends Gwen

Stefani’s Hey Baby collaborator Bounty Killer has also come out in defense of the singer.

“Nobody f-cks with Gwen Stefani in Reggae or Dancehall.  She’s been loving Reggae/Dancehall all her life plus most Jamaicans girls today would rather wear a Brazilian weave than a dreadlocks wig, so why the jealously bcuz she rocks it so well,” Killer wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday.

“Can tell nobody to not celebrate our culture. SHUT UP,” he added.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CgFdgrVJk87/

In May last year, USA Today had noted in an article, that Stefani has “faced decades of cultural appropriation accusations, from wearing a bindi (a South Asian religious symbol) in the 90s to her 2005 Luxurious music video, where she imitated Hispanic culture and seductively danced in an Our Lady of Guadalupe shirt”.

The publication also noted that, in 2012, the singer had donned Native American attire in No Doubt’s Looking Hot music video which depicted a Cowboys vs. Indian fight with teepees and feathered headdresses. The group pulled the video and apologized for “being hurtful” and “offensive.”

According to USA Today, “the most serious claim of cultural appropriation came from the Japanese-inspired imagery Stefani used heavily on her 2004 album Love. Angel. Music. Baby, which birthed her No. 1 single Hollaback Girl and her Harajuku Girls  – a troupe of Japanese and Japanese-American dancers which formed a part of her entourage.   Stefani later launched her Harajuku Lovers merchandise brand and later produced an animated children’s show called Kuu Kuu Harajuku in 2015.

Back in 2006, comedian Margaret Cho had described Stefani’s Harajuku Girls – as a “minstrel show” which reinforced negative ethnic stereotypes of Asian women.

“Racial stereotypes are really cute sometimes, and I don’t want to bum everyone out by pointing out the minstrel show…A Japanese schoolgirl uniform is kind of like blackface,” Cho had also written in an essay back then.

In 2005, San Francisco-based journalist MiHi Ahn, had argued that Stefani had “swallowed a subversive youth culture in Japan and barfed up another image of submissive giggling Asian women” and that while “aping a style that’s supposed to be about individuality and personal expression, Stefani ends up being the only one who stands out.”

“ She’s taken Tokyo hipsters, sucked them dry of all their street cred, and turned them into China dolls,” Ahn had declared.

But in an interview with Paper Magazine last year, Gwen, in responding to accusations of cultural appropriation, said that she was simply paying homage.

“If we didn’t buy and sell and trade our cultures in, we wouldn’t have so much beauty, you know?” she said at the time. “We learn from each other, we share from each other, we grow from each other. And all these rules are just dividing us more and more.”

On Twitter, subsequent to the Light My Fire video release, many commenters have accused Stefani of being a habitual culture vulture.

Some have provided photographic examples showing Stefani clad in traditional garments belonging to non-white ethnic groups and countries, among them  Japanese street attire, Latin American, her wearing of a bindi in music videos, and styling her hair in Bantu knots, a traditional hairstyle invented by the Zulu people of Western Africa.

“No one can appropriate a culture the way gwen stefani does,” one man wrote.

“Gwen stefani started culturally appropriating again omg the golden days r back,” was the sarcastic comment from carleigh.

“Gwen Stefani is why Bob Marley wanted to chase dem crazy baldheads out of town,” was another mocking comment from Michael Harriot.

Then there was a big tongue-in-cheek comment from Mikey Moo who noted: “If Gwen Stefani proves one thing it’s that Caucasian culture, as a whole, just isn’t anything to get excited about. What she going to do, build a career around summer dresses, hats and beige?”

https://twitter.com/Mookiep9101/status/1547579538128785410