Last Sunday saw around 300 Japanese women in identical blonde wigs take part in an event to counter the supposedly stereotypical western concept of beauty. This was also coupled with those present being urged to develop their own idea of beauty, and the gathering ended with a symbolic removal of the wigs.
A very commendable idea it has to be said, and one that also seems to have struck a chord with the male population. As on closer inspection, the wig wearing woman in the bottom right hand corner appears to be a man.
There's also the option of following Tokyo Times by full feed RSS, and now Twitter too.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I hadn’t heard of this event. Kind of interesting though, I didn’t know the West had such power over the hair colour of the Japanese. What exactly was their motivation I wonder..have they been turned down for jobs because they are not blonde? Do the men in Japan only date blonde women? I get the impression that being blonde in Japan would be a handicap rather than an advantage, after all, standing out from the crowd is hardly an admirable trait over there is it?
What happened to the blonde wigs? Donated to needy drag queens, perhaps?
Funny! I hope that is a man in the picture; either that or a ‘modest’ woman.
What makes them think they need to rebel against the western stereotype of beauty in the first place?
Yeah, I’m not really sure what all this is about. It may have something to do with so many women (and men) having dyed hair. Or there again, maybe not!
And midbach. “Modest” woman, a great phrase
T-girl?
I think it’s probably more to do with the way that, when you look at Japanese models for clothes and stuff, you often see them made up to look as western as possible (and I think I read something about having plastic surgery to change their eyes), perhaps instilling an attitude that American blonde haired blue-eyed girls are beauty, anything else is not. At least, that’s my take.
This event must have been sponsored by Dove- the same commercial showing women throwing their blonde wigs has been airing in Japan and North America for a few months now. All part of their Campaign For Real Beauty.
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/
A commendable message AND a great publicity stunt.
It had to have been for a Dove ad. That is the exact thing they did for a U.S. ad.
Yeah, dove for sure.
Campaign for real beauty?
I’m already in the hair club for men, thanks.
In regard to the top comment… standing out from the crowd isn’t an admirable trait? have you not seen some of their fashion?! Dude, look at the cosplay trends and such over there and you’ll soon find yourself mistaken I think.. Although I do agree on wondering what the motivation was… great stunt though.
Removing the identical blonde hair…..
to reveal identical black and brown hairstyles….
nice
wow, i think that’s awesome. a lot of asian women are trying to become beautiful by following western stereotypes (large eyes, pale skin, etc…), like kirin said.
that’s not a man! lol. it’s an older lady, i think. poor lady!
In all fairness everyone all around their world have their own standards of beauty if India the lighter your skin and eyes the more beautiful you are, and the same in parts of Africa.
Even people who don’t have televisions in Africa want to change their looks. So I think looking different from what you have currently are really attractive to them.
hmmm funny, then why do they still use skin whiteners and bleach and get their eyes and noses done??? These countries are the ones obsessed with the western look, thats why no one these actresses and models keep their original looks, this article makes me laugh. One more thing they dont even look good blonde anyway and dont knock people who are. jealous much!
Similar to what other people have said, i think that this is about accepting and embracing the uniquely asian features that make Japanese people beautiful. It is true that the famous in Japan often bleach their hair or opt for a more “western look” but that is because genetically japanese people cannot have blonde hair etc. they’re not forgetting who they are necessarily but they are just experimenting like anyone else. since caucasian people can vary in their hair colours no one complains when a blonde person dyes their hair black, no one says that they are trying to be more “asian”. Please stop being racist and calling japanese women experimenting with their looks “fake”. It’s like saying that Americans are superficial because they spray tan themselves when they’re really pale. that would be an unjust generalization of a whole country. comments like that of missy are just uninformed and naive.