Gwen Stefani's Harijuku girls.
Ok.

Here's the problem. Is a questionable action validated merely because members of the group to be offended are a party to the offending group? The Harijuku girls of Gwen Stefani, arguably, illicit wrongful stereotypes of Asian-American, or more specifically Japanese, females. The girls are displayed BECAUSE they are Japanese. Apparently, they aren't allowed to speak english, even though they can (one, apparently, is from the US, but under contract, is prohibited to speak English). The range of wrongful stereotype stemming from the Harijuku girls depends on the collective opinion of the masses. One thing is for sure, however: it doesn't promote diversity, and it certainly implies ethinic-function and positioning.

So what's so complex about this issue? Well, no one FORCED the girls to do it. It's another example of self-stereotyping. Like African-American comics. We are told to not place ethnicities into stereotypes, yet the ethnicities place themselves in the stereotypes. One option would be to ostracize the girls for taking up the job of being Harijuku girls. But, in my opinion, if it wasen't those 4 exact girl, it would have been another 4. As long as there's money to be made, there'll be someone there to make it.

So how "should" we see them? I don't know. All I know is that it's hard to tell everyone that no one is representative of a group when the groups themselves want to retain dignity by seperating themselves. The Japanese want to be Japanese, but, technically, no Japanese is like all the other Japanese. Hmm.