No Doubt's Native American video: why it wasn't looking hot

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/shortcuts/2012/nov/05/no-doubt-looking-hot-video

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"Do you think I'm looking hot?" sings Gwen Stefani on No Doubt's new single Looking Hot. If the reaction to the video is anything to go by, the answer is most definitely a "not".

In the clip, Stefani plays a Native American princess in a variety of culturally questionable garb (feathered headdress, tasselled tribal dress, moccasin boots). We see her emoting in a teepee, getting handcuffed to a wall by cowboys and generally making like a blonde Pocahontas in a Roy Rogers-inspired Vogue shoot.

Village People and Adam Ant may have used similar visuals without problems, but that was 30-odd years ago. It seems obvious that in 2012 the band would catch flak for their inaccurate and insensitive appropriation of Native American culture. Hours after it premiered (and two days into Native American History month) the clip's "dislikes" had jumped from 60 to 700 on YouTube, with one commentator calling Stefani out for "debasing all Native American women" and perpetuating the colonial image of the "Savage Indian". Native American author Sherman Alexie tweeted that the band turned "500 years of colonialism into a silly dance song and fashion show". The video was pulled almost immediately and the group released a statement saying that diversity and "consideration for other cultures" was important to them.

"We call this the 'leather, feather, teepee and tomahawks' syndrome," says Barrie Cox-Dacre, executive director of the International North American Indian Association UK. "A lot of people think they can put an inaccurate plastic bonnet on and some grease paint and that's OK, but it's not." David Watters, director of The Onaway Trust, a charity that supports indigenous people, agrees. "People feel that they can use Native American culture and imagery in such a glib way. It's disrespectful."

For Stefani, the line between a Madonna-like pop culture magpie and plain old cultural naivety has been a fine one. As the blog Laist points out, the singer has got into trouble with her use of bindis as a fashion accessory (in the video for Just A Girl from 1995) and the troupe of slave-like Harajuku Girls she used in the visuals for her 2004 solo album Love Angel Music Baby. Comic Margaret Cho likened them to a "minstrel show", while MAD TV parodied the trend with a Stefani lookalike singing the satirical song Aren't Asians Great? (sung to the tune of The Sweet Escape). It seems like some people never learn.