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Gwen Stefani With Dreadlocks Ignites Firestorm Of Criticism

Home / Stars / Gwen Stefani With Dreadlocks Ignites Firestorm Of Criticism

By MLC on July 15, 2022 at 3:15 PM PDT

Gwen Stefani may want to think again about her hairstyle choices.

The No Doubt singer has come under scrutiny for the way she wore her hair in the music video for her song, “Light My Fire.”

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Gwen's Dreadlocks Draw In Criticism

The track features Jamaican rapper Sean Paul and singer Shenseea.

Stefani wore her hair in dreadlocks for the music video and the internet is having a FIT.

“No one can appropriate culture the way Gwen Stefani does,” one person wrote along with four photos of her throughout the years.

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Fans Complain About Gwen's Cultural Appropriation

Another tweeted, “Y’all. Mother Appropriation is BACK!!!!”

“Gwen Stefani is BACK with a cultural appropriation banger,” wrote another.

“Gwen Stefani said f**k your discourse, I’m gonna appropriate like it’s 2004,” someone also tweeted.

People are up in arms, because this isn’t the first time she’s done this.

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Gwen Stefani seen making an appearance to the Jimmy Kimmel Show
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When her first solo album, “Love. Angel. Music. Baby,” was released, she instantly got backlash for cultural appropriation.

The album featured multiple songs that referenced Tokyo’s Harajuku fashion. When she’d perform the songs she was often joined onstage with a handful of Japanese backup dancers.

This Isn't The First Time She's Done This

Twitter also reminded the singer of this while calling her out for her latest cultural appropriation situation.

“Dear Gwen, You’re far too comfortable with cultural appropriation. Y’all remember the harajuku girls? The bindi she chose to wear in one of her videos? The bantu knots? The imitation of indigenous culture within a music video, as well as, indecently portraying Latina women?” one person commented.

Others accused her of playing “Cultural dress up” and asked her to be more authentic.

“It’s time you stop treating people’s heritage like a childish game & give it the respect it deserves. Alternatively, why don’t you portray your OWN cultural background within your work? I’m sure people would love to see that,” another argued.

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Gwen apparently hasn’t seen the chatter online, because she’s been tweeting behind-the scenes photos from set with her hair in dreads and all.

Gwen Stefani performs at the annual Salesforce conference.
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She’s not the only celebrity to be called out for cultural appropriation.

Earlier this year former Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson got absolutely demolished for cultural appropriation and blackfishing in her music video for “Boyz.”

Jesy Nelson & The Kardashian-Jenners Have Appropriated Culture

This was her debut single as a solo artist and it backfired. She also wore her hair in dreads and her skin was extremely dark.

Her former bandmate, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, even accused her of blackfishing.

Following the backlash, Jesy then went on Instagram live with Nicki Minaj to issue an apology.

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Jesy Nelson squatting
Jesy Nelson / Instagram

During the IG Live she said, “I personally want to say that my intention was never, ever to offend people of color with this video and my song because like I said, growing up as a young girl, this is the music that I listened to. These are the videos that I watched and thought were the best.”

She insisted that the darker skin tone and hairstyles she sported in the video had nothing to do with her trying to integrate herself into the black culture, it’s just what she knows.

Nicki ended popping off on the Live and accused Leigh-Anne Pinnock - without naming her name -  of trying to destroy Jesy’s solo career and she also said some not so nice words about the rest of her former bandmates.

The Kardashian-Jenner women have also been highly criticized for cultural appropriation several times. Kim, Khloe and Kylie have been called out the most.

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