Page 141 - Flaunt 170 - The Phoenix Issue - Ever Anderson

from the mindless double-tapping of colloquial thirst-traps on our Insta feeds to inadvertently jumping onto the bandwag- on of nuanced beauty trends (cue highlighter-dotted dewy-skin, Kylie Jenner lips, and the ever-perennial boy-brows), the pres- sure to uphold an augmented standard of beauty is not only abound, but is perhaps the single greatest bane of the post-dot- com era. These seemingly benign everyday interactions with the digital world, and the media that we consume to stay informed, are being weaponized against us, sometimes even against our will, in an effort to mold our inner narratives. Creepily person- alized ads coerce us into shopping the latest designer drops. Perfectly-staged and heavily-filtered obligatory OOO swimsuit thot-shots instill in us a crippling FOMO, and subsequent pangs of self-loathing. These are psychic injuries, and they accumulate over time to wreak havoc on the framework of our self-identification on a subconscious level. Aside from being the universal starter-pack for body-dys- morphia and status-anxiety, the touted positive impacts of social media somehow manage to balance out the pernicious aspects by compensating in monumental ways as a universal platform for challenging the status quo, forging real-time con- nections, obligatory meme appreciation, cautionary narcissist abuse self-help accounts, ASMR wormholes, staying on the pulse of all things media, intersectional means of self-expres- sion, et al. When controlling the algorithm is out of our control, we have the option of mitigating some of the anxieties surround- ing its unsavory perils by joining the insurgence of progres- sive socio-political movements sweeping social media that are hellbent on dismantling the self-perpetuating toxic culture that is keeping up with the carefully curated Jones’. Hailing from Tokyo and raised in the countryside of Ibaraki, Japan, Taiwanese-born Japanese comedian, actor, and fashion de- signer extraordinaire, Naomi Watanabe, has lifelong bore the brunt of body-shaming in a nation that glorifies petite figures. She has taken social media by storm as a crowned jewel of the body positivity movement with her penchant for subvert- ing dated body-shaming traditions. For those not in the know of Watanabe, she more commonly widely regarded as the “Japanese Beyoncé,” since making her foray into the main- stream limelight in 2008 when she debuted on the Japanese variety show Waratte Iitomo!, impersonating a hyperbolically sultry and unforgettable caricature of Beyoncé to the title song from Dreamgirls. With a knack for belting out jokes as the class clown, as an only child raised by a single mother, Watanabe, like a vast majority of Japanese children, would be left home to her own devices until wee hours of the night. “I would have to find ways to entertain myself so I would watch a lot of television, namely comedy,” Watanabe tells Flaunt. “Come to think of it, television raised me.” Watanabe is now revered as the single most famous per- son on social media in all of Japan with a whopping 9 million follower count on Instagram alone. Unconventionally stunning, vivacious, and exuding show-stealing streetwear swagger head- to-toe, the showbiz Renaissance-woman of sorts attributes her rite of passage into the hard-fought dominion of self-love and acceptance to a series of rebirths. Rebirths that in more-ways- than-one warranted psychic liberation from negative self-talk, which gradually taught her to also drown out any hateful remarks others hurl her way. When she is not featuring in large-scale TV commercials and media campaigns, engrossed in sketch-comedy projects, or starring in miscellaneous Japanese films, Watanabe, both literally and figuratively, has her hands full with designing body- and age-inclusive silhouettes for her streetwear brand, Punyus, which puts the “k” in kawaii, and takes the street style fashion cake. Read below for more on her career, inspirations, and collaborations––old and new––straight from the source. How has this seminal rise into the mainstream limelight shaped your career since? Actually, that wasn’t my first time doing a comedic act. I started out primarily dabbling in sketch-comedy, and then once I start- ed performing solo, my Beyoncé impersonation just happened to be one of the many that I was doing at the time. Once I became focused on performing it more on TV, it blew up. And I was honestly taken by surprise when it got the level of media attention that it did. I started appearing on Waratte the first year of my public career, so it was a quick transformation from there. Not going to lie, I felt a lot of pressure to continue to do the Beyoncé bit, and keep dancing and singing, when what I wanted to be doing more of instead was sketch-comedy. However, I actually got to perform my Beyoncé imper- GUCCI jacket, UNIVERSAL STANDARD top, LANDLORD pants, stylist’s own gloves, and ANNA KIKUE earrings. sonation in-front of Beyoncé herself, and she was the one who coined me the “Japanese Beyoncé,” and that stuck I guess. It was very exciting for me to meet her in the flesh and have her on the show. Waratte is really popular in Japan; even Will Smith came on it, and I had the pleasure of performing in front of him, too. He returned to the show six months later, and introduced me to his friend as the “Japanese Beyoncé.” I was delighted that he remembered me, and came back to see me perform again. Beyoncé, on the other hand, hasn’t returned to Japan since. I may have pissed her off after all \[laughs\]. I still do my Beyoncé impersonations, but mostly investing in sketch-comedy. Were you always vocal about body positivity, or was it spurred by a monumental revelation that you would like to share with us? And was there ever a time when you didn’t feel as comfortable in your own skin as you do now? If so, how did you come to avert it? When I was in my teens, I was definitely way more self-con- scious about my body largely due to the fact that it was so chal- lenging to find anything stylish in my size, which made me feel like I shouldn’t try to be fashionable. So once I started to make