Dirrty History & Culture - Ganguro

On December 3, 2009 Nicole Polizzi first rolled up to our screens in her little black beater car, ready for the biggest summer of her young life. With her big hair, strong smoky eye, and and deep fake tan, she and the rest of the Jersey Shore cast introduced american audiences the Guido/Guidette subculture.

But Snookers wasn’t the first to don the tan, the hairbows, and the fuzzy boots. Before this tiny orange XTina graced our screens, there was Ganguro.

Historians differ on whether Ganguro influenced late aughts Guido style culture. Popular consensus is that Guidos evolved from the American Greaser subculture, but with a 2000’s McMansion twist. In any case, what an uncanny parallel.

Ganguro subculture, like any great subculture, arose in defiance of conventional beauty. East Asian ideals of beauty have long favored dark hair and fair skin, so in the 1990’s our ganguro trailblazers slathered on their fake tans, flat ironed their bleach blonde hair and donned their tiniest skirts to let the Japanese public know they were the baddest girls around. And they were.

The idea of classic beauty is inherently safe. To really enjoy yourself with makeup and style you have to be willing to risk looking ridiculous. And to achieve true camp is to embrace and enjoy the ridiculous. Ganguro goes farther than the guidette in her full embrace of this overly tanned absurdity, and in doing so distinguishes herself among her peers as a committed rebel and radical feminist.