GYARU
GYARU
GYARU MALOU WIJNEN / 2014 DAE / RESEARCH / SUBCULTURES
CONTENTS
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01 05 15 19 27 33 44 INTRO
SUBCATEGORIES GYARU
THE PRINCESS DOLL
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THOSE EYES?
SEXUALIZED CHILDREN?
COLOR
HELLO KITTY?
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INTRO
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Welcome to the wonderful and slightly creepy world of the Gyaru. Pronounced ‘gi-ha-roo‘ (a Japanese transliteration of the English word gal) it’s a subculture made up of fashion conscious Japanese women and girls essentially rejecting their own oriental features and aesthetic traditions. Since the culture first gained popularity in the 70s and 80s, many sub-genres have sprouted from it, ranging from the outrageous to the relatively tame looks you saw in the before & after photographs above. Yes, those are the relatively tame ones. Let’s take a look... 4
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SUBCATEGORIES GYARU
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There are various subcategories of “gals� depending on the choice of fashion, and also gender. Gyaru-kei Basically the default gyaru style. It is an umbrella term for the many subcategories or themes of gal styles. Bibinba This look usually includes a lot of gold, and jewelry. Similar to b-gal. It was said to be a joke in Egg magazine about this style, and was not a serious style. Banba Banba is a lighter form of manba. Banbas wear less white makeup than manbas; they also use more glitter, and may or may not have neon colored hair. Banbas wear more extreme-looking types of false eyelashes, and colored contact lenses. Banbas wear darker colors than manbas, and sometimes dress in club wear. The most respected banba Gal-cir is Angeleek; there are 22 members in the Tokyo group, and they have many other groups throughout Japan.
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Hime gyaru Also known as Hime kei. It is one of the more over the top and also one of the most expensive style of dress of all of the categories. The hime style is largely based on the Rococo era. Gyaru of this style wear dresses or skirts in pink or other pastels with lots of lace and bows. Rose patterns, pearls and crown motifs are also very common. Headpieces range from large bow clips with pearls to rose accents, while the
hair is either bleached, poofed up in a bouffant at the top and curled or a wig/extensions are worn. The makeup style has even more exaggerated eyes than the typical gyaru. Hime gyaru does not only include clothes, but many girls see it as a way of life and make or buy custom-made decor for their homes. The style blossomed in the early 2000s but has since declined or turned more casual (this version is referred to as hime kajii), even if the old one is still present. Not to be confused with Lolita fashion.
of having high volume styled hair, trendy fashion styles, and sometimes tanned skin. Kogyaru Generally a high school student JK gyaru Newer term for Kogyaru, or gyaru still in school uniforms. Ane gyaru Gyaru style that has the bad assery of yanki and biker gang culture with gyaru make up and style. The girls drive or ride bikes, and tend to have tattoos and piercings. They not only look rebellious, but the magazine caters to girls who live on the edge. Ane gyaru is more of a tougher version of Onee gyaru, and are for a bit more mature gals. Magazine of choice for fans and followers is Soul Sister, a relatively new magazine. Some of the girls work in construction, hostess clubs, or as Djs and models. Some are fighters or wrestlers.
Ganguro A gyaru with an artificial deep tan and bleached hair. This style was popular in the late 1990s, and early 2000s. The term is no longer used within gal culture. Mostly people out of the loop use it. Western gyaru, Amerigyaru, etc Girls and also guys who have found gyaru fashion outside of Japan (Western gyaru includes countries in the west.). The term Amerigyaru was short lived, and was used for people who identified with gyaru lifestyle and/or fashion in America. Western/ Gaijin gyaru have their own communities, and forums with lists of tutorials to help beginner gyaru with make up and hair basics and to also meet up with each other during travel if they so choose. It is simply a term, not a style. Gyaruo A male gyaru. Typically, gyaruo have similar elements to their appearance with gyaru in terms
Yamanba Like manba, but the nose stripe goes past the eyebrows. Gyaru mama gyaru girls who continued the style after having children. BBC News states: “Gal-mama are young mothers who refuse to shed their gal-ness
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GYARU
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THE EXTREME GYARU: Yamanba / Mamba Gyaru / The California Girl
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Yamanba, literally meaning “mountain hag”, was the first of the Gyaru subcultures to emerge and adopting this style is very much a middle finger at the Japanese ideals of beauty.
Of course you can’t miss the large circles of unnaturally white eyeshadow they wear. This is called the ‘reversed panda eyes‘ effect. Could this be the Gyarus trying to communicate their rejection of an animal symbolic to the orient and their heritage? (I was soul-searching for reasons why one might choose this style of makeup– and that’s all I came up with). So anyway, the idea is to look as fake as possible.
Emulating what they see as a ‘Californian valley girl’ style that couldn’t be further from their own culture, Yamanba girls sport deep leathertoned tans, neon boob tubes and bright clothes, acid blonde hair, extensions galore, backcombed to be as big as possible.
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Although it’s recently seen a comeback in Tokyo, Yamanba was replaced by Manba in the 90s– the ‘Californian surfer chick’ was swapped for the ‘acid rave club girl’, but the tanned skin, reverse panda eye and and fake hair remained in tact. Something to note about being a Gyaru is that it’s actually very expensive to maintain the look. Some of the Manba Gyaru evolved into yet another sub-genre called O-Gyaru, who don’t wash off their make-up to save the expense of re-applying. The O-Gyarus are generally antiwashing and hate spending on the upkeep of their looks so much so that they tend to stay indoors all day in their pyjamas and only venture out clubbing at night. It might not be surprising that these kinds of Gyarus are very often unemployed and considered lazy by Japanese society.
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THE SINISTER EVOLUTION OF THE GYARU HIME GYARU / THE PRINCESS DOLL
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This is the “princess doll� style, it’s less rebellious than the rest of the genres but still renders the girls virtually unrecognizable from their oriental heritage. Hime Gyarus dropped the fake tans and the panda eyes but they have dress etiquettes that are just as strict. Immaculate honey-comb/ caramel colored hair is required, styled into an extravagant bee hive style with falling curls. Neutrals, pastel pinks must be worn and eye make-up is applied to make the eyes look as big and doll-like as possible.
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Let’s take a minute here to note the fact that gyaru make-up looks distinctly inhuman and cartoon-ish– especially the eyes. With the Gyaru subculture placing a big emphasis on being all things toy-like and cute, you don’t have to look very far to see that the influence of this style of make-up comes from actual Japanese cartoons.
Other off-shoots of Hime Gyaru include the Himejakki, still very princess and doll-like but style rules are more relaxed and the look is wearable on a daily basis. They love big wide-eyed make-up, sparkles, pastels, nail art and other cutesy girly things. This is the most common type of Gyaru you can see today on the internet. 18
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WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THOSE EYES?
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Cosmetic contact lenses are used en masse amongst Gyarus to change natural eye-colour and enlarge the pupils and iris. But that’s not all. There are thousands of make-up tutorials for Gyarus to make their eyes appear even more inhuman with fake top and bottom lashes and specialized eye-shadowing techniques (borrowing from that original Gyaru “reverse panda� method). But a Gyaru girl would never post a picture of herself on the internet without the finishing touch. Yep, in case you were unsure, you can be certain that all those before & after make-up pictures creating a buzz on the internet are not without a healthy dose of our old friend Photoshop.
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The New York Times spoke to a woman having the surgery who said the procedure was so common these days that “it’s not even considered surgery.” Rando Kim, a professor of consumer science at Seoul National University told the NYT reporter, “Wide-screen and high-definition TV put pressure on them to look good in close-ups. And with the Internet, where people like to post ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures, they can no longer hide it. So they go public, often talking proudly about it on TV.”
In fact, Japanese malls conveniently provide what is known as purikura (sticker picture machines). All the purikura machines help enhance the eyes, lighten the skin and generally help erase the natural features of the face. This Gyaru obsession with rejecting their oriental features and adopting a westernized look has extended across Asia. In Korea, a cosmetic surgery that creates a new fold in the eyes to make them appear larger and rounder has become so popular that it has been speculated 4/5 women living in Seoul have had the operation.
Another doctor said of the surgery boom that it was causing young women to all look increasingly alike.
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“Koreans agree on what constitutes a pretty face,” says a head doctor at a Korean hospital. “The consensus, now, is a smaller, more sharply defined youthful face — a more or less Westernized look. That makes 90 percent of Koreans potential patients because they’re not born with that kind of face.”
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SEXUALIZED CHILDREN?
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While reading this, you may have realized how much some of the women look uncomfortably like children with their photoshopped flawless skin, wide-eyes and girly accessories. And with their naturally straighter body frame, the Japanese Gyarus are able to pull off this child-like aesthetic better than most western women could. But why would they want to?
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The Kogal Gyaru, another sub-genre, sexualise their school uniform by knotting their shirts in front or raising the hemline of their skirts. Socks are essential - they are kept very long, loose and floppy, so they fold on the legs and over the shoes. Kogal hairstyles are artfully maintained. They have to be blonde, in order to distance themselves visually from ordinary japanese girls - and honey blonde hair seems preferable to an intentionally fake-looking brassy blonde. Further primping involves giving the hair body with extensions, curling tongs and brushing. To western eyes, Kogyaru fashion seems a strange mix of American prep and Japanese schoolgirl moe. 30
Kawaii (literally, “lovable”, “cute”, or “adorable”) is the quality of cuteness in the context of Japanese culture. It has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, and most importantly, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms. It’s claimed that Kawaii Syndrome, a.k.a “cute” syndrome has replaced the former Japanese aesthetics of “beautiful” and “refined”. ‘In Japan, cuteness is expected of men and women. Many Japanese men are drawn to the owner of cute merchandise, because it is reminiscent of little girls, and Japanese women try to act cute to attract men’. I’m not making this up, it’s straight from Wikipedia. Several Gyaru sub-genres such as Kogal Gyaru, which sexualize the school uniform, actually have their own “cute” way of speaking and writing. The cute way of speaking is known as burikko and is considered a gender performance. The ‘Kawaii’ cute hand-writing, very different to the traditional Japanese vertical style, consists of big, round characters with added pictures such as hearts, stars, smiley faces, and letters of the Latin alphabet.
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hair / color / face
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clothing / hair
hair
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skin colors
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PRETTY MUCH HELLO KITTY NIGHTMARE? So there you have it. A subculture of women rebelling against their asian heritage in favor of looking like cute, westernized, sexualized cartoon children.
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GYARU MALOU WIJNEN / 2014 DAE / RESEARCH / SUBCULTURES