Slavic Gal in Cali

Greetings! Thank you for checking out my humble abode 💞 This is a gyaru blog, so expect all things gyaru. There is standard stuff, like posts with magazine scans, my own amateur mug, and about the makeup I'm getting. However, I want to also make this blog a place of discussion about gyaru subculture, so there are posts about my opinions on what's going on in gyaru and what we can do about it. I totally solicit opinions, so please share yours always! I also blog about just whatever happens in my very ordinary life... gals are allowed off-duty days, right?

Name: Kay T. (read as Katie)

Community: ★ Slav gaijin gyaru 4 life ★

Gyaru styles: Onee main one, Agejo, Mode, Tsuyome, Amekaji

Inspo: Heisei Gyaru, McBling, Reiwa Gyaru, Synthwave, E-Girl, Barbiecore, Yakuza (Ryu Ga Gotoku) games, Euphoria, Grand Theft Auto III (yes, really)

★★★★★

Location: Orange County, CA Place of origin: Moscow, Russia Age: mid-30s (onee gal) Relationship status: married Occupation: graduate student/researcher at one of the UC schools

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In my free time, I like to: sift through my extensive wardrobe, take hot girl walks, exercise, window shop IRL and online, play video games, or just veg out on my phone or computer, scrolling Tumblr or playing games for AliExpress credits, with smth playing in the background on YouTube.

Previous: Vol. 1

Guess who had to come down with a cold on the hottest month ever. Idk what it is, aircons blasting everywhere, or me eating or drinking something too cold, or just getting it from somebody else? Don't know, don't care, all I care is to get better, there is a deadline I need to meet at work by the end of this week.

While I'm recovering, let's react to one more Western gyaru who is here to educate us all (lucky us). Her Insta page is a treasure trove, I picked one of medium difficulty.

The video is mainly her talking to the camera, barely any text or visuals, so I'll just summarize it for you fine lot.

Basically, she is addressing people who claim that "Gyaru has no rules", and that their argument is that gyaru is about rebellion, and rebellion is the opposite of rule following. But she's here to inform us that gyaru DOES have rules and you HAVE TO follow them to be gyaru. She, of course, uses herself as an example of a proper gyaru - she does hime, and talks about how she may not follow some rules, but she understands "the elements and the rules and guidelines for hime gyaru to be able to coordinate this", so it's okay for her. But she is oh so tired of Western girls who disrespect the rules. She cannot even call them "fellow gyaru" because she doesn't consider them as part of the community. Her hypothesis? That the "gyaru has no rules" crowd is just jelly of Westerners who "can pull of gyaru looks and stand side by side "able to pull off these looks and can stand side by side to a Japanese gal" - like her, I reckon. She also points out that the "gyaru has no rules" crowd "either have no photos of themselves, so we don't know what they look like, or they, they can't coordinate their clothes good, and they can't do any type of makeup". She's really tired of these weeaboos who put down Westerners and glaze Japanese OGs, "as if, you know, they also wouldn't try to hold these people to, like, a high standard". There is more, but I can't be bothered - let's stop here. Honestly, she is a riot, maybe I'll revisit her page for this series another time.

First of all, I REALLY struggled to get a clear screencap of the video. I really wanted to cap when she was showing her outfit, and the camera was shaking and moving around so badly throughout the whole video. I understand that it's not easy to hold the camera still in your hand, but for somebody who is confident in her point of view, who KNOWS gyaru inside and out, who will not be overthrown by all these nasty wannabees - she was very, very shaky. Just thought I'd point that out, because I really wanted to cap her fit.

Next - holy strawman. I've been on the gaijin gyaru side of the Internet for 4 or 5 years now, and not once have I seen a genuine "gyaru has no rules" claim even from the staunchest rule breakers. Don't just take my word, put that phrase in the Web search of your choice and let me know if any genuine claims like this come up. All I get is fellow strawman fighters quoting this from each other.

What I do see, and quite a bit, is claims like "gyaru rules are flexible", "there are many gyaru substyles", "don't need lashes/droops/brows to be gyaru". To which I say - where is the lie? There are indeed a ton of gyaru substyles, they all have heavy eye meiku in common, but the rest, and the eye meiku itself, it all comes in so many forms that you, indeed, become convinced that there is no rigid way to "be a gyaru". The only rule I derived from years of observation, experimentation, and conversation is that you do some heavy eye meiku. And even that is debatable, as the very early gals from 1990s settled for nothing but a heavy tan.

So yeah, gyaru rules are all over the place. What rules do we follow, and what rules are negotiable? From the way she talks about it, I can conclude that the rules that must be followed are the ones that she follows, and negotiable rules are the ones where she gives herself leeway. Why? Because she knows gyaru. We should just take her word for it.

So, the rules that she stated that she didn't follow with this 'fit of her is that, first, it's a tracksuit and she doesn't see that many hime gyaru in tracksuits. Yeah... neither do I.

But it's okay for her because "she understands gyaru". She states that she has the hair on, and not many accessories in it, but again, it's okay because "she understands gyaru". There is also a comment on another video by her where she addresses her brows and how they aren't done in a gyaru way, but it's okay because...

OK, but where does this authority on what's gyaru and what isn't come from? Who assigned that authority to her? Other than herself, I cannot think of anyone.

However, this level of self-aggrandizing gives me a very different vibe... that she is actually not particularly confident in her own "rule-following ability" and this is her way to preemptively strike down any "you aren't following a number of rules yourself, you're in no position to judge other gyaru" pushbacks. Which is super embarrassing. Just be humble. Say it with your chest: "I don't follow some gyaru conventions, and that doesn't make me less of a gyaru". Otherwise, what will this attempt of being the "proper rule follower" achieve for you? Being accepted in the narrow circle of gatekeepers? Why would you want to be in a community where one small misstep will summon an avalanche of judgement, snark, lecturing? Stay with us, with rule-breaking gyaru. We're having fun here.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Now that I disagreed with her, I'm one of those people who "either have no photos of themselves, so we don't know what they look like, or they can't coordinate their clothes good, and they can't do any type of makeup"...

... uuuuh no-no-no, not this type of euphoric

yup, this one.

HBO's Euphoria needs no introduction on Tumblr, I reckon? A drama series about teenager girls and then young women managing life issues through any and every unhealthy coping method in existence. Welp, yours truly has come back to it after a 5 or 6 year break, and just went through the entirety of seasons 2 and 3 within the past 2 weeks. Making this post right after watching the series finale, in fact. Enthralling drama of the storyline (Season 3 went full-on neo-noir!), brilliant acting, captivating visuals, and of course, impeccable apparel and makeup - how could I not.

I swallowed it whole, and emerged on this side of history committed to channeling its energy through my personal style. In all fairness, I've been gravitating towards more artistic eye makeup for the longest time now, but at still learning to apply it well... it's a work in progress, and Euphoria inspires me to commit to it. As for my wardrobe, I'm still in discovery of my personal style, so it's bursting with clothes of all types of styles, and experimentation will be abound. The future is looking bold and colourful, embracing and amplifying every emotion, a little muted, with colourful hue depending on the mood, bokeh background, and lots and lots of glitter.

Inb4 are you leaving gyaru? Nonsense! If anything, Euphoria is bursting with inspo for gyaru, with so much variety of eye makeup and styling. I am drawing inspo from both now. Call me a euphoric gyaru. Yup. And let's see where it leads 💖

Aka "I'm so glad those young women were not my introduction to gyaru".

I'm ragebaited. And it's heatwave in Cali, so I have some time to Tumblr. So, I decided to start this series to let it all out. Who knows, maybe I'll get lazy and this'll be the only volume.

DISCLAIMER: Only personal opinions here. I'm not speaking for all gyaru, only for myself.

So, for Volume 1, I have...

As you can see, we have a "stoopid Spongebob" meme, the alternation of upper- and lowercase letters - all related to the "Japanese gals don't care" idea.

In the video description as well. Clown emojis, you guys! That means that if you agree with that take, you are a dum dum. Clown emojis and stoopid Spongebob all agree with her.

As opposed to her being very smart. Look at that face beaming with "can you believe these people" emotion.

So, to spare you the torture, her video is about how whenever she talks about gyaru makeup or lifestyle, she gets "Japanese gals don't care" types of responses. And today, she is here to prove them all wrong once and for all! She lived in Japan for seven years you guys!

Her proof? A bunch of screenshots of Japanese media (text or captioned videos) - I counted 12. Let's check out what the irrefutable proof is...

These 4 are the ones of Japanese gals indeed stating that there are conventions to be followed if you want t be a gyaru. - First one is about how we need arched brows "and then you're gyaru" - Second one gives me headache at this point, as every gatekeeper Western gal uses that one. - Third and fourth one are all by the same creator.

So that's three Japanese gals. And what about the other 8 screenshots? They are instructions!! The existence of instructions for gyaru meiku in Japanese is proof that Japanese gals do care about makeup as much as she does!

Checkmate, all you smooth brains :)

Oh, and a sarcastic "maybe learn to speak Japanese before speaking for Japanese gals" send off. As if she didn't just extrapolated radical takes from 3 Japanese gals onto the entire population of Japanese gals - aka spoke for Japanese gals.

Right, that was exhausting. Now for palate cleansing - my take, based on what I watched, read, discussed, both on the Western and the Japanese sides of gyaru.

Certain conventions in gyaru meiku are definitely a thing. Heavy highlighter, fake lashes, bottom lashes, tareme (puppy eyeliner, "droop"), namida bukuro (aegyo sal, tear bag). Same with outfits: animal prints, bows, hibiscus flowers, etc.

However... the claim that Japanese gyaru all collectively agree that the only way to be a gal is by following very specific gal conventions has never been my experience.

There is galture.com, which states that modern onee makeup is simply a cat eye. But that's just an appetizer. I see all sorts of makeup in gyaru magazines - wispy lashes (Popteen), smokey eye (Happie Nuts), different types of eyeliner (Soul Sister). They all have one thing in common, emphasis on the eye. But that emphasis comes in all shapes and sizes. Not to mention the very oldschool, 1990s makeup where oftentimes gals didn't even use falsies.

The "GAL is MIND" chant literally came from Japan. Not "GAL is MAKEUP". Not "GAL is BROWS". "GAL is MIND". Usatani-aneki emphasizes that idea in each of her videos where she talks about what being a gyaru means.

Look at this lineup, at the variety of meiku. I'm seeing at least 2 gals who would be proclaimed "not a gal" by experts like the star of this post (missing bottom lashes, eyeliner is the wrong shape, brows too thick etc). And all these "proper" Japanese gals accept them into their community and even into this photo op? Mind blown!

One more, because why not. The rightmost one has pretty much nothing but a cat eye wing, and... is that a STRAIGHT BROW?!?!

But I must've pinched these photos from a Western source that has "tarnishing the purity of gyaru" on the agenda? I guess, if we consider The Japan Reporter (formerly Nobita in Japan) YouTube channel one of these. Nah, wait, that's just a native Japanese fellow teaching us gaijins about different aspects of Japanese culture, mainly through interviewing Japanese people related to each aspect. This video of his was my intro to gyaru, and hoo boy, am I glad it was.

One more because why not... word of mouth and anecdotal, but I'll add it. I'm hearing from a lot of Western gals who are currently in Japan that "gyaru mindset" makes you more of a gyaru than conventional makeup. Over there, you can be gyaru with any type of bold eye makeup, as long as your personality is upbeat and outgoing, as long as you chase fun, as long as "standing out" is more comfortable to you than "blending in", and if you happen to feel that your meiku is not the boldest, you can amp your appearance up with hair, clothes, accessories, nails, etc, and still be a proper gal!

OK, to close off - gatekeepers exist in Japan, as it does everywhere in the world, so I do not dispute that there are gyaru who assert "rule following" to be essential for being a gyaru. However, there isn't some Japanese gyaru hivemind that makes all of them, or even most of them, collectively agree on these "rules" stated by the few of them. If you hang out in the echo chamber of gatekeepers who happen to agree with you, I'm sure it begins to feel like that's how all of them are, like all of them agree with you. So, the verdict is...

✨ The magic of Magic Monroe dresses, advertised in 小悪魔ageha magazines.

(Note: This post reflects my personal opinion based on my personal experience or observation. YMMV and I in no way intend to undermine it. If you feel that there is a discrepancy anywhere in the post, do bring it to my attention, and I will be happy to issue an addendum or a correction.)

Wherever I go on Instagram, Reddit, YouTube and TikTok, whatever I read on gyaru on the English-speaking part of these places, it seems that the primary directive for "how to be a gyaru" is "MAKEUP IS ESSENTIAL FOR GYARU!!1!11!". As a result, majority of content by gyaru and for gyaru is about "look at my makeup" and yelling at amateur gals to get their makeup game on point or get out. Heck, even egg and nuts channels are mostly about showing off their models through those little interviews.

So, the overall conclusion I derive from my observations is that there is a ton of focus on looking gyaru, but little to none on being gyaru. Which, to me at least, is quite concerning.

Think about it, let's say you're pitching gyaru to a friend who seems to be the right fit for the subculture: "Hey, I think you're the right fit for gyaru". The friend responds: "That sounds interesting, tell me more about that gyaru thing." What is your response? "Uhhh… there's makeup… yeah… MAKEUP IS ESSENTIAL FOR GYARU… also dressing up sexily, putting outfits together, also accessories… and there's para para and gyarusa…" What would the friend's conclusion be? "So, gyaru is about putting on makeup and outfits". Who needs to belong to a subculture for that?

Sure, there is a very specific type of makeup that allows people to tell gyaru apart from the rest of fashionable girlies. But with all this focus on looks in gyaru, one can't help but walk away with an impression that it's a subculture of putting on makeup for the sake of putting on makeup. What more is there to it?

Take goths, emo/scene kids, punks, hipsters - you learn about somebody belonging to one of these subcultures and you immediately think: "okay, this person probably likes doing this and that, likes hanging out at this kind of place, likes listening to this kind of music, likes watching this kind of films and TV shows, probably would be interested to converse on this and that". You can guess what the person does in the downtime after the white foundation and the spiky choker come off, and you can think of a number of activities and behaviours that make your vampire friend a vampire even when she doesn't wear her plastic fangs.

And that's the question I put before all of you lovely gals: What else is there to being gyaru other than looking gyaru? What is gyaru about us that lingers after the makeup and the outfit come off?

Maybe you are certain that I'm wrong and gyaru starts and ends with the looks. Maybe you thought about it too, but don't have the answer just yet. Or maybe you were able to pinpoint what gyaru lifestyle entails and are happy to share it. Bring all of it on! I want to read and discuss every opinion on this idea 💖