Innovation in Gyaru

 As a person that did cybermanba before DeDedo (with some people not liking it) as well as me wearing a camo hoodie for banba, I get why some people would not like style mixing or doing something off beat.

Time slip twins?!

 I was posted on “gyaru_fucks” for this outfit, yet Black Diamond’s Galeo’s Harutamu and outfit gets love and $$$. 

 If someone is brand new to the style, they have yet to get their basics down first before wanting to do something new, but my makeup was consistent and on point back then. 

Some people have no idea on how to do make, don’t want to do the make, don’t know how to do basic coord making, or seem to want to rename old styles that already exist. How is this innovation? How is it being innovative If you can’t even do the basic reiwa make up?

This also brings me to the point of “What even is innovation to new gen gyaru?” To what is deemed “elitist” to them? The points that I see from SOME (not ALL) new gen and beginners is that the makeup is too much, they don’t want to get stared at or they don’t want to get bullied for being different. (News flash, you can get bullied for just existing or being good at something!) 

Does gyaru need innovation the way the new gen wants it to be?

Why are former, tried and true styles frowned upon by them?

Why all the renaming of former substyles on TikTok?

Share your thoughts about gyaru and innovation!

The Original Cybermanba

 Post with terrible text colour choice (a graphic design nono) reads : 

“sweetie, you are a beauty when doing ONLY MANBA. but please, dont so that

Its ugly and scary and mixing styles is wrong. SO WRONG.

If mixing lolita with gyaru is So ugly and bizarre, imagine manba with cybergoth 

So please, stop it, specially when you are in a place full of r-word otakus, they will get the idea of cybergothmanba exists and will screw up more with gal styles. 

This is so ugly. Dammit. Do your eyebrows!”

Besides grammatical errors, a terrible colour choice,  and using an ableist word and not being able to say this to my face or in a dm, this was a “critique” on my style mashup. 

I had fun that year, but would focus on rokku and banba and gyaru events as a Diamond gyaru circle member. 

Years later, I would hear of a Japanese cybermanba who was getting so much love from the comm. The same community (although a new generation and possibly different people than this poster) that hated on style mixing. Why? 

Also, we would see in AGEHA a gal model who’d wear lolita dresses, and one black American gal dabble in hime gal x lolita. 

How the turn tables. 

What do you think of style mixing or creating new substyles? 

The Gyaru Comm is Failing!

 The Gyaru comm is failing! What is causing our community to fail? After 17 active years in the comm and observations of the good, the bad, and the ugly, there are several reasons that I've deduced a few reasons why this is. 

Negativity

During the early to late 2010s, there was Gyaru Secrets, a place to originally air out how you felt about certain styles or your views on being a gyaru. The rules changed to be able to allow secrets to be made about individuals, allowing people to talk crap about another gyaru (whether they were gyaru or not) and to still be close to the object of their hate. When Livejournal updated their policies on how people could post, the anonymity fell away, and groups like G_S participation dwindled. 

But, sites like LolCow and a secret gyaru group named Gyaru Tea Party, where a select number of individuals were invited to join, allowed people a space to continue to 

Lack of Direction

With very few people adhering to the subculture rules, misinformation, and lack of gyaru circles, where do we go? Subcultures thrive and exist when there are rules to abide by, after all, it is a culture functioning outside of the main society. Newcomers barge in, attack others based on where they shop for their clothes based on misinformation, deem what can and cannot be gal as too extreme and stuffy, yet those rules and guidelines were what kept the community and any others in existence. Do they think about other subcultures, like Scene, Goth, the same way and want to change what it means to be one as well?

With those that value what the community deems to be gyaru, at minimum wearing the make and cute coords/codes (coordinates, outfits), they are putting their energy into explaining to those too scared to want to do the style as it is. That precious time could be used elsewhere.

Soft Newbies, Mean Vets, and Criticism

There is a stark difference between someone hating your makeup attempts verbally and someone giving another constructive criticism to level up their look. Of course, if the critique or commentary is unwarranted and mean, then it may not be regarded at all. 

On TikTok, I have seen comments stating that some Veteran Gyaru were mean, and they were getting hate comments from them. Some newbies over the years did not want to take solid advice from those who lived the lifestyle and wore the fashion constantly. Is it propaganda to deter Vetgyaru from participating in the community and to see our experiences as invalid? Is it a way for newbies who are unaware of how these subcultures work to evade putting in the work to make their make actually look gal and deem themselves perfect from the start? 

On the other hand, Vetgyaru get disrespected and their time wasted from beginners, some not at all interested in long-term commitment in the scene, but only want to get a few quick likes for an ego boost and to dip if it doesn't work out for them or because they can't take the stares from normies. 

Disrespect

Not everyone is going to like each other, that is a facet of life that just is. Some people tend to not center their lives around someone that they find annoying or can't stand, while others make it into some sort of fixation.  But when people feel it necessary to disrespect someone on someone else's behalf because they want to be seen as cool and not put in the work for their circle, it shows a level of maturity or lack thereof, that deters people from wanting to be in the comm. Some people may feel happy that someone else may be having a hard time with others rather than being accepted, or that the spotlight is on someone else's perceived wrongdoing rather than their own misdeeds. What a way to not have to hold your actions accountable or even apologize to the target of your disdain and form of keeping yourself relevant, right? After all, that target will be go
ing through a lot of confusion and pain than possibly fighting back and returning that energy. 

Lack of Conflict Resolution

People will disagree, and fallouts happen between gyaru circle members and friends. Everybody won't like everyone else. It is inevitable. However, when drama happens due to trying to "win" because they feel overlooked and unliked by people, girl code (like not sleeping with someone else's partner) being broken to retaliate because of the "popularity" of someone else, and much more things get messy. That mess spills over and isn't confined in the gyaru comm. Those on the periphery of the comm looking in see the drama and bickering and are less likely to participate and see us all as unprofessional. 

If conflict resolution skills were strong, and emotional intelligence as well, at least the community would be able to focus their energies on maintaining their style and circles instead of battling someone else in petty and discreet ways to alleviate the pain they feel from insecurity and their egos being bruised. The participants in the comm and in their respective circle would be able to express how they feel because they value the connection and at least come to a level of understanding and cordiality. However, if the connection is not valued and they live for the drama of hurting and disrespecting someone else, then it continues, showcasing the drama for the world to see.

Like what you read? Consider following, sharing with friends or leaving a comment, or even donating. 

This Year is Flying By!

November 20th. 2024

 

Its already late November, and December will be well on its way to completion! What a crazy year its been! From getting a promotion to getting fired because I wasn't gossip besties with the staff there. But, at least I am not doing more work than what I am getting paid for (I don't mind working hard! But when you're made to be an example when others are just going to watch you overwork yourself is not fun!!!!). 

I thought that with many hindrances with my old jobs and my previous inexperience, working hard and doing my best to be as helpful as possible for my managers would save me and work in my favor. Turns out, that work isn't based on all the hard work that you do, but how much you can kiss ass, not make people feel stupid if you happen to have a lot of experience, and gossip about people. Took me a long time to figure this out, but I guess it will help later in my career? Not what I was expecting! 

My biggest bit of advice is to never allow someone random to get a hold of your resume especially if they don't give a damn about you or your career. That information can be used against you in some nefarious ways. Some of those ways are allowing them to know where you work, which is an invasion of your and your job/career's privacy. Not only that but the relationships with your managers and coworkers can also be sabotaged depending on the mentality of the individual gaining your information. Not everyone is there to help you If they didn't feel like they won in other aspects, that is a surefire way to cripple your financial security and make life harder for you, whether or not the subculture you're in can be pricey. 

Besides that, I have been filling my time with lots of crafts! Despite them taking a bit of time and effort, I surprised myself at how well these projects have been taking form! All the time spent mending items I had or working on simple projects has really paid off. These projects might make an appearance on this blog, but for the time being, they will be showcased to a certain group only. 

I have also been updating my blog, and apparently, a lot of old posts have their dates changed. =____=. A lot of them aren't "now" except the one about Malice Mizer's money-hungry manager and the posts that follow it. Maybe I can change the dates, but unfortunately, that might be lost in time. >.>;

More Youtube Videos are coming!

I have two videos from a 3 part series up about the School Girl Inferno book that got me the first bit of information on gyaru fashion when I was in high school. Let me know your thoughts! 

Until next time!

Terrible Drug Store Make Up, or Nah?

2016?

A while back when I went to the beach to try to relax, I had stopped at the Water Tower to just mosey around. It was a lil while ago... but I was checking out some of the make up booths a little until I saw Katy a make up artist who had me try some purple lip shades.

Don't get me wrong, the eyeliner pencils I drew on my hand with lasted a nice long time for quite a few hours! It actually made me rethink checking into and buying eyeliner pencils for my make up.

Bye for now!

Eyelash Custom

Eyelashes

DIY Project!       

Difficulty level 1 star

In the last bit of the summer break I had, I wanted to try out something new with my eye makeup. Not only did I use a different liner shape than I usually do and have done, I decided to do something different with my bottom lashes. If you remember me from a few years ago, I used to cut up and double up lashes to create my own look.

For this dolly gyaru eye make look with bottom lashes, I will guide you through the steps. Don’t worry, its super easy!

What you will need:

§  Diamond Lash  Sweet Eye

§  Eyebrow scissors

§  Patience

1.       Grab two bits of the Sweet Eye lash that you will use, 1 for each eye

2.       Gently snip the lash hairs a few at a time horizontally to your preference to avoid a really boxy appearance

3.       Carefully cut the holding strip twice to create 3 slender parts. This can be pretty tricky if your hands aren’t too steady!

4.       Store for later use or wear immediately!

And you are done! Look at you being all awesome!

Thank you for reading! Comments are appreciated and I’d love to see how your lashes turned out! 

Fka Twigs x INC

                                                  I'm never gonna be your saviour 
                                                     Im never gonna be the one...

I fell in love with this dark black + white video done by Twigs with INC. A somber mood resonates and entwines from the lyrics and video.

The beginning opens up in a desert, with the three characters looking quite fatigued, and Twigs looking like she is about to become slightly and gently possessed while laying on a bed in a white dress.

 With relationships, I feel that people want to try to be this special person for the other, be their all, while this song tells of a different tale. 

Bad Managers and Marvelous Bands

Published November 5th

Before becoming acquainted with Eurobeat and Trance music due to my involvement in gyaru, I was in love with the sparse amount of Jrock and Jpop music that I could get my hands on. It was a hard time back then as resources were limited for Japanese music online.

 Malice Mizer was one of the bands I fell in love with as their outfits were quite majestic and the vocals of the frontman, GACKT, were captivating. Though their songs have continued to entice listeners, they had long since disbanded; Malice Mizer later disbanded and the former frontman, GACKT, embarked on his solo career in 1999. 

During the early 2000s, I found myself in a public library on the southside of Chicago looking up lyrics to my favorite songs and later using the computers at high school to do so. I had learned at the time with the limited translated resources and knowledge available that people were upset with GACKT for leaving Malice Mizer. Not all bands last and not all band members stay throughout the entirety of their group's existence (Malice Mizer having had several vocalists). From my findings, fans of the band seemed upset that he seemed unreasonable with the matters of his band and that he left his bandmates behind.

Frustrations

Years later, I would read about the issues concerning the band as a business. It turned out that if GACKT was being "unreasonable", and that the feud between the remaining members of the band and GACKT wass stoked and possibly miscontrued, there was a reason for this. Besides some tension with the members, there was a manager/managing company for the band and their fan club that mismanaged funds and profits from their lives.  While the manager was living a life of luxury filled with luxury goods, the members struggled and weren't seeing the profits from their efforts and likenesses. 

On top of the squandered funds, Mana, the lead of the band, felt that they could not speak up due to their professional relationship and was being financially compensated. Other members stayed silent due to the manager's temper, afraid to make her upset despite her taking advantage of them financially. This silence and not sticking up for the band upset GACKT, causing his departure and frustration. 

If you enjoy this content, leave a commnet, share, and consider donating at paypal lishamisha22@gmail.com or via cashapp $lishamisha22 . 

Is Gyaru Racist?

Lately, one of the biggest topics in the gyaru community, outside of the validity of newer gyaru substyles like tropical gyaru and the blunders and controversy of a project that eggmag has been disappointing us all with, is "gyaru fashion is racist." Not just the extreme manba fashion from the early 2000s, but as a whole movement.

Japan- Gyaru Beginnings

For a quick history lesson on this particular subculture and its fashion, there were girls who rebelled against Japan's beauty norms of pale, white skin, being modest, quiet and subservient by tanning, being materialistic, and partying. As time passed, girls involved with the style seemed to want to outdo each other, or to just push the limits, to stand out even more. This brought upon changes of the next popular accessories and clothes, to bleached/dyed hair, and affected the makeup and also their intensity of their tans. Some of the notable trendsetters and icons at this time were Buriteri and the gyaru circle Angeleek. 

Gaijin Gyaru Community Debates

Some people don't see the more extreme elements of the subculture as problematic at all and shut down healthy, polite discussions, to people who are doing their best to educate others on how the more extreme versions can come across to Black/African American people. That the usage of box braids and dark foundation is blatantly insensitive and there should be no excuse whatsoever. I have even come across a creator that have reached out to a popular Japanese gyaru about her darker foundation usage only to be blocked. 

For Black people who cannot pass for any other ethnicity, I can see how jarring and bizarre the fashion can come across. Why are they so DARK? Whats with the makeup? Why are they choosing to do THIS? But does tanning as a fashion statement in a homogenous society automatically equate to hating black people when dark skin has had historical contexts of being associated with being poor and of the working class and was avoided by richer individuals? Or is that reserved for the more extreme styles of gyaru fashion? Does it become more complicated with Japanese folklore of the Yamauba, the name for a mountain hag where the word "yamanba" comes from?

American Historical Context

In 19th century America, there were White people who painted themselves black, had overdrawn mouths and made a mockery of Black people as a form of entertainment. Black people were still seen as subhuman, buffoonish and stupid compared to their White counterparts. These shows were called minstrel  and there was a lot of blatantly racist art that dehumanized black people. 

These actors were not going against any fashion trends or creating their own, but to portray African American people for comedic purposes. These forms of entertainment lost popularity during the civil rights movement in the 1950's-60s.

2020+ and Changes

After posting a little more on Tiktok after such a hiatus, a manba makeup and fashion enthusiast reached out to me. I was informed that the new standard for Gaijin Gyaru was to not tan too dark and those that were not black or of a darker complexion naturally were to not overdo it with darker foundations; to be mindful and respectful of Black people. Looking back on the the kurogyaru wave during the Japanese Black Diamond era, I did notice that the girls in the group were tan, but not overly dark, save for a few young women. 

As the number of gyaru fashion practitioners has died down overseas and a lot of the girls having become shirogyaru (white gyaru) and choosing that over tanning, does the label of it being racist still apply? If the tanning trends lessen, and there are more shirogyaru because paler skin falls in line with the mainstream view of standard beauty, wouldn't that be just as insensitive to people with naturally darker skin or those who tan easier than others?

Sunk Cost Fallacy

 I really wasted my own time trying to be on good terms with people who hated me, wanted others to do so too, and liked seeing me disrespected and frustrated. I wasted my own time working on a few (not all) projects where the goals were constantly shifting out of reach, the budget to pay me was nearly non existent though there were investors and new equipment for the group, and projects/benefits that were dangled in front of me I “hadn’t worked hard enough l for it yet” despite making appearances to the least important events I was informed about and creating content etc.  

I thought that putting in more work, extending myself to be there for others would actually work… because that’s what I was told and I held on to that belief. But, at the end of the day, I was important enough for them to be so concerned about me. 

Anyway…Because once people are set on what they think, even if they didn’t ask questions or ask for all parties to talk about the issue together or are discouraged in doing so, they are set on it no matter what. They may like the drama and actually don’t like you. 

A human flaw or just something that could be helpful in not wasting your time? 

But yea, stick with people that actually want you to be in their life. You can’t change their minds because they don’t want to. (And maybe they actually didn’t like you and live for the drama.)If* they change their mind, they may feel too embarrassed to bring it up. People telling you to try harder when you’re getting snubbed only want to delight in you making a fool of yourself and wasting your time. Just like me, you’ll take this advice because this person was a trusted person in your life and you shouldn’t disregard that and think for yourself. You’ll stay, thinking “this too shall pass” and the next time shared will be better. You’ll be wasting some time or even years on a project that may not be paying you well or at all and getting no benefits or even losing tons of them, staying with people that don’t care about you to your face, or even being in a relationship with someone who doesn’t even want to be with you yet just want to take notes about what you’re into or and your reputation especially if they can’t use you up anymore. 

This is : sunk cost fallacy: you continue to stay or have stayed because you put in so much effort (time, money) and continue to do so without concerning yourself with the tangible benefits you could be getting now and in the future. Maybe there were false promises and excuses and you don’t want to come across as “selfish” while being exploited. After all, you want to be seen as supportive of the mission, not self centered and greedy. 

If a person is concerned about the situation being mutually beneficial (that just beneficial for themselves only), they’d weigh the options: are they getting paid adequately enough for the job (than putting in a lot of labor for nothing)? Is their partner or friend putting in substantial and reciprocal effort? And so on. 

People who are opportunistic (a word I learned from a Chicago Artist that now works for Marvel who made some appearances at some of my and LA’s events in the past), people who only see something as a means to an end, those overly concerned with their image/ego and being better than others also fall into the time wastage of sunk cost fallacy! They want to maintain an image of a “winner” than being perceived as “flawed”, “weak”, “loser” in any way so it’s guaranteed that they’d continue because they cannot stop. 

Kawaii Gyaru Themed Wallpaper pt 3

 Here is the third installment for gyaru themed wallpapers. The theme for these themes (wowzers, thats a lot of "th" words...) is pretty in pink!

Nokia Phone
Technological nostalgia with a pretty twist. 

Quilted Cushion

SailorMoon

Now, some wallpapers with a hint of pink. 

Pretty Dark Chocolate

Black Pink

Simplistic Black Lace on Pink Background

I do not own these images, but curated them from submissions on the web.