Ariana has learned nothing. As a fan I am so disappointed in her take.
“u kno how many people make this mistake and DON’T care just cause they like how it looks?” you mean like you when you were totally okay with it meaning BBQ/tambourine/circle because it “still looks tight” until you couldn’t take the criticism anymore?
People need to stop only referencing Japanese people who grew up in Japan’s homogenized society. I am an Asian American, and I have friends born/raised in Asia who do not see even the big deal in white people being cast as Asian characters because in their context they cannot understand the racial dynamics living in a society as a minority where white people run the entire scene. As an AsAm I understand how white people can capitalize on parts of our culture and reduce us down to harmful stereotypes. Ariana is just capitalizing on Japanese (and black culture but that’s for another post) and though she feels she has innocent intentions, she still does not understand the consequences of Orientalism and thus feels frustrated when criticized for it. It is a problem that is not just about her but she cannot see past that.
In the third tweet she pulls the white woman trope by weaponizing her delicacy to escape criticism. I am not invalidating her mental health. (But also, it’s not like she can’t just log off or get the best therapists/psychiatrists/etc. in the world with all that money she boasts about in 7 Rings. Others don’t have that privilege. Even more so marginalized people.) An “innocent mistake” girl… did you or did you not know for sure what it meant when you got the tattoo (twice)? Fuck the dumb haters, but you did not listen to your critics, and as a fan I’m so disappointed because I thought you were one of the more open minded pop girls.
She’s acting like a spoiled brat. There was nothing wrong with her learning Japanese. That is appreciation, taking the time and effort to learn a foreign language and respecting/listening to the people of that culture (including Japanese Americans). Japanese is not an exotic accessory for white people to brand themselves with and show off for Instagram likes. She completely missed the mark rushing to get a tattoo without fulling understanding its meaning; it’s obvious her priority was in the aesthetic, not the meaning (and the basis of language is communication). Her ass showed, TWICE, with getting it incorrectly amended. And she’s so butthurt at people mocking her for her failed appropriation she wants to drop Japanese entirely. She victimizes herself and immaturely so. At this point it’s obvious she never learned Japanese for genuine reasons.
She definitely should have remove the Japanese merch from her site. What was the point of that anyway being targeted towards the Western market? Capitalizing on an Asian language for people who don’t speak it to show how exotic they are. Do profits even go towards Japanese people?
At the end of the day, people can be like “all because of a damn tattoo” and that’s a horrible take. No one gives a fuck about just the tattoo, it’s the entire attitude that stems from a postcolonial unconscious that has real-life effects on POCs lives. I hope this teaches us all something.
