2010 Fan/Portrait art by Ashley A. Woods

 Black Gamer Girls + Work Exploitation

In 2010, I met Ashley, a black comic book artist, at a local anime convention. She was tall, with a short haircut and was in a cosplay of one of her own original characters. She was bright, nerdy and bubbly, and we clicked instantly. 

2010 Vintage Lisha fan art/portrait -Ashley Woods (Millenia Wars, Tomb Raider, Niobe,&more)

I introduced her to my gyaru acquaintances/associates and gyaru circle partner La, and she would attend me & La’s gyaru events in Chicago & game with me too. She had a lot of games that I was familiar with, as well as some that I wasn't. It felt like having a cool older sister. She really liked how fearless I was with my style, and I admired her laidback gamergirl vibe and our mutual interest in Japanese culture and anime. 

Ashley had (re)introduced me to a different black woman, who became a former mutual of ours because of our shared interests in gaming.  I thought it would be the best thing ever as I wanted to be more social anyway, and get back into my *social* gaming interests post Gaiaonline days (2005-2006).

Lost footage of an interview of Ashley and Lisha 2012

Plus, I would be hanging out with black women than just guys from high school! Ashley and this other woman were a little older, but I thought that this could be good for me. Our mutual was always TENSE and talked about stuff that wasn’t necessarily about games, and me thinking I could make people happy, thought nothing of it. After all, Ashley was cool with her, and thought nothing of these convos, so I dismissed them. People have bad days sometimes… they’ll get over it. After all, I wasn't arguing with her, and would be mostly quiet around her so she wouldn't have a reason to be angry with me anymore. (ps... never worked). At least Ashley was calm, cool and funny, and always made the atmosphere brighter.

Ashley Woods, Lisha and Ashley's friend 2010ish

After multiple anime and gaming conventions, my (and La's) gyaru events, we hung out as well.  She'd gave THEE best recommendations for anime series,movies, music, and it was like walking into a mini anime store when I'd visit her! One of those recommendations I'll share with you are the animes Paprika and Perfect Blue, as well as the movie Mimic. You can thank her for those suggestions if you get a chance to watch them! While she shared her faves out of her anime collection, I shared my gyaru tips with her, Our time together wasn't just partying, games and anime, she also had professional artist experience as well. I can still recall getting artist tips to save time or her input about digital and traditional inking. 

Ashley and Lisha

In 2012-2013, things started to get more serious in my personal life, and Ashley was one of the few people that reached out to me and did not make my grieving and her presence into a social media pr stunt to bolster her empathy online.  During this time, I would later learn of an issue with her and the mutual she introduced me to. Ashley would give me the best advice that I took far too late because I didn't fully understand the complexity of what I had allowed in my life, and what used Ashley to gain access to me in a more socially acceptable way. I was young to the entrepreneur life, let alone figuring out Youtube and making more interesting videos for you guys and gals. 

Ashley A. Woods and Lisha at c2e2

That owner wanted me to be against Ashley and dog her out by using her assistant to talk crap about why Ashley. I was invited to some events, and even told I was a great artist (possibly comparing me to Ashley). It was two against one, and I was the middlegyaru. Then, Ashley told me why she left the group.... The owner of the gaming group kept compensation and didn’t pay Ashley. When I was informed about that, I couldn’t believe it! I was flabbergasted, felt stuck, and wanted those two to be friends again. This was all just a misunderstanding, right? The situation between them could work out, right? The bashing of her stopped from the other two. I thought I would be in the clear as I was only doing press work for that group anyway. 

Ashley (then later on Monica of Geeks A GoGo) would soon tell me something important for my career success. That advice? To leave a girl gaming group before they could financially ruin me or just exploit my labor for their financial gain like they did her. She didn't want another creative to get exploited. 

This was one of the best business tips I received, as she was right. Thinking you can work alongside someone who sees everyone as an opp or opportunity and who doesn't care to compensate you is not going to work out in your favor. You can't get someone to like you when they want to see everything wrong with you, and only wants to drain you of so much so they can be compensated and take credit while leaving you struggling and calling it empowerment. 

Thank you for reading and check out her work online! Ashley A. Woods. 

Resume Under Attack! : Invading Jobs and Harrassment at Work

Cross Posted from  Jan. 10, 2024 1:16am 

When I was a young college student, involved with gyaru fashion, blogging, and event coordination, looking feverishly for jobs 14 years ago, I initially did not take into account bad actors who may use my resume for nefarious means. I was unaware of the blindspots I had with this once simple situation. 

I had given my resume to a woman who claimed she would assist me in updating it for the jobs that I wanted, and I thought she was doing me a favor. After a quick turnaround time, I was equipped with a shiny new resume, ready to send it to various businesses around my city to support myself and content creation. 

Unfortunately, this simplistic act of providing my base resume in 2010ish became a minefield of data for an overeager stranger who was now privy to all the info

Bounce Kogals & Commentary

Graphic design by Lisha-2013

I recently shared a graphic design mock up (2013) on TikTok  based on the movie Bounce Kogals by Harada (1997). It’s a film that I watched in college, around Diamond gyaru circle days (2010-2011) for a gals’ night in with a made from scratch Osakan themed dinner with a healthy side of natto. Delicious.✨

It’s a poignant story of Maki, a bold and strong willed ko Gyaru in the ever so iconic kogal uniform, and an adventurous young student, Lisa, whose lives intertwine and those that exploit them in Tokyo, Japan. 

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?

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.

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 to 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.

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. 

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. 

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 nonexistent 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 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, not bring up what was hurting me and crossing my boundaries, and 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 improving my life, which was a big NO for them. 

Movie Analysis: Nobody Knows

Have you ever had a movie that you’ve watched stick with you after you’ve watched it? I have. I was chatting about current movies the other day and later reflected about the ones I’ve already seen. “Nobody Knows” is one of them. Its not a gyaru movie, but a Japanese one that gave me a glimpse of what some kids may be going through, or have gone through in broken homes in Japan. 

      A pensive, triggering movie suggested to me where a mom moves and finds a new apartment in a new part of town. She introduces herself and her eldest son, Akira to the other tenants, and goes to finish moving in. 

<b>Spoilers ahead!</b>

Veteran Gals Vs. Newbie Gals

Its a thing currently. 

As I dive gently back into the realm of online gyaru worlds, I am met with tons of posts that I would have loved as a beginner gal. There is so much content out there to inspire and enjoy. Some things, also bring to light some of the darkside of Japan and several different fashion subcultures like Jiraikei.

Amongst the plethora of nostalgic fashion posts, or people debating whether or not manba is offensive to black people, I am met with posts declaring how mean and callous gaijin gyaru veterans are. I am met with posts about how ignorant and helpless newbie gals are.

Friend/Partner Poaching

Recently on social media, my former feed of pictures of food and statements of "its better being solo than surrounded by people that don't like you" is now filled with random stories about friendship or partner/boyfriend poaching and situations of overly humbling (or outright disrespecting (Black) women (ie. Rihanna x Chris Brown, Beyonce and Jayz, Ciara and that one guy before her current husband Russel) who are successful and the critiques on such circumstances.

This kind of poaching is regarding someone taking your friend and excluding you out of the relationship. Essentially, "stealing" your friend from you. This can also happen when you are dating or in a romantic relationship, and your friend wants to "steal" your partner from you, causing your boyfriend to cheat on you if he has no empathy or respect for you.

Apparently, women who go for married men, or unavailable men feel as if they need to "win" and be better by showing their worth by being able to seduce someone away. They get the feelings of feeling better than you, hotter than you, sexier than you, and this boosts their ego and makes them feel powerful if something is triggering them to feel less than. It is also a breach of trust if this person was considered a friend or claimed to be, and simply is a form of disrespect for boundaries, and a "power move" to become dominant and cause pain to the other party.

As for friendships, I haven't seen a lot on the topic outside of the "stolen" friend having more clout or popularity which makes them seem cool or pretty to be around them, or that the new friend has resources, money, a car, or connections to be used for their own benefit. You are left behind because they didn't want you, but what the people around you can do for them and their social status even if they cannot reciprocate.

How to NOT Dox Yourself

Keeping yourself safe is pretty standard advice.

So is making sure that when you hand your resume to someone who is a complete stranger to you to "fix" that they are someone you trust with that information. A stranger can go and see where you are working, and if you are getting out of an abusive relationship, you don't want that person knowing where you are since they are not capable of respecting your boundaries and treating you with respect.They have the potential and will/might just cause drama with the people around you and get you fired. A stranger who may be a win-at-all-costs sadistic, bruised ego type can have access to your references that may have loved you and your work ethic before, and "furnace your references".

Values, Failures, Mission Statement

Good evening! How are you? Are you doing alright after the pandemic and with all the chaos going on in the world? Are you doing alright with your work load or with the topics you are studying?

You know...this blog was generally centered around various aspects of my days throughout college, events I hosted with others, or what I found cool. However, it didn't allow much in the ways of getting to see your perspectives and such.

We deserve love - Anti Latinx/poc hate, fatphobia is not tolerated here

 For the most of us, we can all agree that we should all be able to be respected for who were are when it comes to our ethnicities, body types and for the languages that we speak beyond English and to have healthy high self esteem.

On Abuse, Jealousy and Isolation

 It’s interesting that someone can claim relationship titles or anything to justify saying awful things about you to the people who you may have stronger bonds with, even under the guise of “caring” (and never bring it up to the person they are referring to). 

And those bonds that were stronger don’t question it, don’t question the intent to why they were being talked to by someone that was not introduced properly, and don’t even get the person of the topic involved. That bond is weakened and ultimately destroyed, and the target of the conversation is isolated and has no support group after all the talking, an abusive, jealous person's favorite outcome more than just moving on and minding their business. 

Here are some clips from specialists about the dynamics of this  

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ECKkCUWDx7w&feature=sharec

https://youtube.com/shorts/LoVxuD9z-QA?feature=sharec

Anti Latinx or poc hate is not tolerated here

You know that at a certain distance, you might recognize someone or not by their gait or body type? Or if you didn’t know some groups of people could be taller or shorter and all that or that there could be similarities etc??I had an experience with that once, and it backfired on me and I didn’t have a chance to explain or even apologize or get some sort of  clarification. Especially to the people that mattered the most to me. 

Afromexican article that you must read!

 Check out this amazing article from Black Girl Nerds on AfroLatinx people and history!!

Antidepressants are Useless?

 Today I read an article regarding depression and the use of antidepressants to treat this common mental disorder. As a person who has had depression before and during my gyaru/alt fashion journey, and has even tried antidepressants as well, this study shocked me! 

These pills (third ranking amongst meds in the US) that commercials promote (in the USA, but not a common finding overseas) and doctors prescribe are to help your brains intake serotonin (happy chemical), but apparently it’s not the lack of it that causes depression. 

Will this be a blow to big pharma and the money they make (a whopping 13.4 BILLION!!) off antidepressants? 

Check out the article: 

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/mental-health/3569506-depression-is-likely-not-caused-by-a-chemical-imbalance-in-the-brain-study-says/amp/

What do you think? 

Ponderings on Sowing Distrust

Good evening. 

There have been times when I wanted to interview or do a quick collaboration with a few people/someone when I had a lot on my plate during my undergraduate program. 

Cool music or vibe, great... yet there is a road block. The middle man  doesn't want me to meet with them, talk to them in person, or doesn't even pass the message along to collab. Or passes other messages or puts words in our mouths instead, creating dissension, distrust and dislike between two people who haven't even gotten to really meet each other to see if they'd click. If you try to talk with that person of interest and vice versa, reality is already skewed and not on your behalf. 

So... who gets stuck with the blame of not going through with someone and highlighting some black girl magic or gets a label as being "lazy" or even "difficult"?

Something to consider for other people who may be in a similar situation.