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Gyaru Transformation: An Example Of Japanese Subculture

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Gyaru Transformation: Social acceptance Introduction Culture is a way of life. According to Macionis, J.J., 2007, culture is the beliefs, behavior, values, and material objects that together form a people’s way of life and subculture refers to cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population. The term subculture had been used since 1940’s and most authors have agreed that “subculture are groups of people that have something in common with each other which distinguishes them in a important way from the members of other social groups”(Thornton,1995). The difference between subculture and counterculture is subcultures exist without making any trouble within the mainstream culture while countercultures go strongly opposed the mainstream culture. Gyaru Transformation ‘Gyaru’ is one example of Japanese subculture which a group of people who follows a certain style of appearance, language and activities. By far, the most popular kawaii (cute) style in Japan is gyaru (Klein, R.D., 2013). The word ‘gyaru’ is a Japanese pronunciation of the word ‘gal’ or girl. This kind of street fashion had emerged in mid-1990s. Gyaru subculture is not only limited to a certain age of people but also has spreaded to the entire community in Japan. Until the mid-1960s, fashion among Japanese women was regardless of class or age and beauty ideology was shared together between mother and daughter, for example they read the same fashion magazines (Miller, 2004). Even celebrities

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