Jynx - The truth about the so called "racisal stereotype Pokémon"

[Takoto]

Haven't seen a thread on this before, but some people who are more causal fans of Pokémon might not know this, so I decided to make a thread on it to clear up some common misconceptions. As Jynx isn't the most popular Pokémon... yeah.
Don't kill meh, Admins :c

Anyway, what do you see at first glance?

A lot of you are going to see a racial stereotype, but a small few of you will see Ganguro. What is ganguro? Well, this:

Ganguro is a Japanese fashion for females, which consists of tanning your skin dark brown, and dying your hair blond, silver or orange, or a similar colour. Most Ganguro girls also wear brightly coloured outfits. The word "Ganguro" actually does mean "black face", but isn't meant in a racist way, it simply refers too the girls darkly tanned face.

Believe it or not, this odd fashion was really popular, and still it. Look at Jynx, and look at the Ganguro girl. Dark face? Blond hair? Bright red dress?

Ganguro started too appear in the early 1990's, and became really popular (for some reason) around the year 2000. Apparently the Shibuya and Ikebukuro districts in Tokyo are a hot-spot for groups of ganguro girls, but I can't confirm this as I've never been to Japan.

Now, I'm not saying Jynx is defiantly based on a Ganguro fashion girl, but look at Nintendo. Kid friendly. I doubt they'd ever allow something even slightly racist too grace their games. And when you think about it, Ganguro is a Japanese fashion, and Pokémon is Japanese, making it highly likely Jynx's origins are not meant too be racist, but meant to be a harmless reference to the fashion of Ganguro.

Wikipedia Article on Ganguro, for further reading. >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganguro

More Ganguro girls.

I know this is mentioned on Jynx's Bulbapedia page, but I doubt many people actually visit Jynx's page. So yeah. And I know probably a lot of people think Jynx wasn't meant to be a racial stereotype, but not a lot of people really know that she was based off Ganguro.

I hope you guys liked the information here. I don't claim too be an expert when it comes to Ganguro so yeah xD

EDIT

The above image was found on Photobucket, I don't know what episode it was from.

Ganguro has appeared in Pokémon in a form other than Jynx... the form of Jessie and James dressing up.

 

[Falconwing]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

Stupid conservatives and their seeing wrong in everything.

I never had a problem with Jynx and this just furthers the idea of how stupid some people can be.

 

[DRWS!]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

The real question we should be asking is:
Why do those girls dot that to themselves?! ._.

 

[Falconwing]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

Why do people get tattoos? Why do they pierce themselves? Why do they put huge gaping holes in their earlobes? Why do the do drugs?

People do things that are often strange and totally crazy. But, apparently that's normal.

 

[Takoto]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

The real question we should be asking is:
Why do those girls dot that to themselves?! ._.

Uhh, maybe they like the fashion?
Just because you and I don't like a certain fashion or cannot see the point in it, doesn't mean other people don't like it.

And in any case, some people see the Ganguro fashion as a sign of rebellion against the the usual "cute" Japanese girl, and against traditional Japanese fashion.

 

[Takoto]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

Why do people get tattoos? Why do they pierce themselves? Why do they put huge gaping holes in their earlobes? Why do the do drugs?

People do things that are often strange and totally crazy. But, apparently that's normal.

Tattoo's and piercings are normal... although stretchers and drugs are considered abnormal, I'd say. When you see someone with a tattoo or piercing you usually think nothing of it, but when you see someone with a stretcher in their ear, or hear about someone taking drugs, you worry about them, and think about their mental health.
Or at least, most people do.

 

[$aturn¥oshi]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

Actually, I'm seeing more and more people with those stretchers. The oddity of it is fading.

 

[P N N K]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

The question is, why would people think that?

 

[Shinx3000]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

Well, if more people knew about these people (I didn't until I saw this) there would have been less of a problem with Jynx.

 

[Mijzelffan]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

well, the problem has faded away a little now her skin colour is purple, but people still mostly remember the black jynx from the olden days, so

 

[PockyAddict]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

And the woman who said it has'nt talked about it since that article. I don't think that she even cares about Jynx anymore. Honestly I don't like the Pokemon since Smoochum is My favorate.

 

[P N N K]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

Well, if more people knew about these people (I didn't until I saw this) there would have been less of a problem with Jynx.

Welcome to the club.

 

[Takoto]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

well, the problem has faded away a little now her skin colour is purple, but people still mostly remember the black jynx from the olden days, so

Yeah. People who've been fans since the original 151 still remember Jynx with a black face... me included.
But people who got into the games/animé after the colour chance just think of her as having a purple face.

 

[Legacy]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

Wow never heard of this. Nice post! Anyways, I'm now convinced that Jynx is patterned after this.

Some people though, take any excuse to complain about things so it was good that Jynx was changed to purple so as to not give the haters anything to complain about.

 

[PockyAddict]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

The lady called Jynx the blackface pokemon, because the woman thought that It resembled blackfaced cartoons from the 30's and 40's of Black people.

 

[Takoto]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

The lady called Jynx the blackface pokemon, because the woman thought that It resembled blackfaced cartoons from the 30's and 40's of Black people.

The thing is, Jynx does look like the old stereotypical blackface, but the point is Jynx is based off the Ganguro fashion style C:

 

[Miki-Fan]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

Another thing, Jynx are portrayed as Santa's helpers on the show. It bears some similarity to the Dutch version of Santa's helpers Zwarte Piet. I can't remember if Dogasu mentioned the Zwarte Piet thing on his website

 

[Takoto]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

Another thing, Jynx are portrayed as Santa's helpers on the show. It bears some similarity to the Dutch version of Santa's helpers Zwarte Piet. I can't remember if Dogasu mentioned the Zwarte Piet thing on his website

Oh right, I haven't heard of Zwarte Piet before.

 

[Zephy]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

Rasical? Really bad spelling.

Anywho, I think it does look more like the Ganguro girls. Really I doubt it was intended to be racist.

 

[lifeless4life]

Re: Jynx - The truth about the so called "rasical stereotype Pokémon"

I've never seen this before. I think this was the true intentions of Jynx-I never believed her to be a racial stereotype in the first place.

I will say that those girls look about as appealing as a Jynx though...