There are good viral videos, there are bad viral videos and there are bad bad viral videos. Consider Avril Lavigne's atrocious, widely-bashed new "Hello Kitty" music video part of the latter camp.
The video features the ex-star dancing around in fingerless black gloves and a pink cupcake dress, interspersed with staring sessions in faux-hipster glasses, a candy spree and—because she's a "badass" rock star!—some clearly posed electric guitar riffing.
All of which would be fine in a car-crash can't-stop-watching kind of way if it weren't for the less-than subtle racial stereotyping driving the whole doomed enterprise off the cliff into infamy. It's one thing for her to shout-sing random Japanese and quite another for her to use a cadre of virtually expressionless girly Japanese girls in pink suspenders as her prop of choice. Because Asian girls are empty-headed sex kittens, remember? Prrrr.
In addition to being stupid and offensive in its own right, Lavigne's back-up girls are a blatant knock-off of Gwen Stefani's also-offensive Harajuku Girls. Which makes this, essentially, an appropriation of cultural appropriation...or offensive drivel squared.
Then again, this insane video has people talking about Avril Lavigne. And when's the last time that happened?
Watch below. If you dare.
