Music

Avril Lavigne's new "Hello Kitty" video is terrible and pretty racist

by Mark Teo

Let’s just get this out of the way: Avril Lavigne’s video for “Hello Kitty” is awful. Undeniably so. We won’t drop the r-bomb yet—although plenty of the internet have called the video racist—but let’s just get the facts out of the way. The song itself sounds like the hybrid child of Skrillex and Sleigh Bells. In the video, which has Lavigne wandering around Tokyo with a cohort of stone-faced girls, Lavigne hits all of Japan’s cultural touchstones: Candy shops and restaurants (/sarcasm). But worst of all? The humiliating piss-stain of a video was made by a 30-year-old. Arrested development much?

Is the video racist? We think so. It, like Gwen Stefani’s “Harajuku Girls” or Sky Ferreira’s “I Blame Myself,” borrows from another culture. And does a terrible job at it. Here are seven of the most cringe-worthy things from “Hello Kitty.” Watch the video in its entirety, if you must, below.

 

That terrible intro

The video begins with Lavigne reaching into your computer screen, bellowing a phrase common to J-pop performers: “Mina saiko, arigato, ka-ka-kawaii!” If that wasn’t cripplingly humiliating enough, here’s 10 full minutes of that moment on loop.

 

She infantilizes Japanese women

Yes, we understand that pop music is often hyper-sexualized. But considering the cultural context of “Hello Kitty,” the video’s especially creepy: Japanese women, and heck, many who fall under the “Asian” umbrella, are objectified for their perceived youthfulness and submissiveness. Lurking under lines like “let’s play truth or dare, we can roll around in our underwear, how every single kitty should play, hello kitty you so pretty,” is a deeply troubling fetishization of Asian women. Of course, that fetishization—or really, patronization masquerading as a hey-I-can’t-find-who-I-find-attractive rationale—is something Lavigne could never understand. Why you gotta make things so complicated?

 

That Skrillex hair

There’s awhole Tumblrdedicated to Photoshopping Skrillex’s ridiculous ‘do onto celebrities. The hairstyle looks hilarious on Avril, too, until you realize that wait—it wasn’t Photoshopped on.

 

It’s appropriation masquerading as appreciation

Listen, we don’t doubt that Avril—who’s reportedly huge in Japan—genuinely appreciates the things depicted in her video: I’m sure she digs Japanese candy, she looooooves taking tourist-style photos, and we’re positive she is genuinely interested inJapanese culture. But the video for “Hello Kitty” is clear appropriation: Elements of Japanese culture—kawaii culture—have been borrowed thoughtlessly, without regard to context, history, or meaning.

It seems innocent, and maybe Avril’s intentions are pure. But, as Femwrites succinctly, appropriation isn’t just a P.C. buzz word—there’s actual consequences to these acts. They reinforce racist stereotypes, they push the “exotic” tag on people, and perhaps most dangerously, they “subconsciously invalidate the [appropriated] society and people.” Real talk.

 

Tokyo is depicted terribly

As Bustle correctly notes, the Tokyo Lavigne highlights in her video is a terribledepiction of Japanese culture. Sure, we get that there’s only so much you can cram into a three-minute video. But really? A candy store? A fast-food restaurant? A stern-looking sushi chef? Is that really the best you can do?

 

Her dancers are used as props

Ugh. Didn’t we go over this with Gwen Stefani’s “Harajuku Girls?” Or Miley Cyrus’s VMA performance? We don’t want to moralize everything, but “Hello Kitty” makes it really, really easy. Her backup dancers are used as props—as cultural robots—as faceless representatives of Japaneseness. The only time they smile (naturally!) is when they’re see a photo that’s taken of them. Hooray for shitty stereotypes!

 

The song was co-written by Chad Kroeger

Because if it wasn’t bad enough to hear Lavigne sing “Hello Kitty” now we’re imagining Chad—who gets a writing credit on the track—singing it: “Mine-uhhhhh suhhhh-ko uh-riiii-guh-to kawaiiiii-ughhhh.” Ugh.