Hair is a topic that is not often discussed, because many think that it is simply that- hair. The reality is that hair has underlying as well as blatant stereotypes attached to it. In the article “Hair Still Matters”, the author Ingrid Banks discusses the issue of hair from the perspective of black women. Banks looks at the issue from many different angles, including race, sexuality, and gender. Hair as a symbol of femininity is discussed and then connected back to the idea of hair length as an indicator of sexual orientation. Perhaps the most important part of the article is Banks’ quoting answers from her interviews with black women about hair and femininity (Banks, 2004). The discussions she had were relevant and came from real life sources, which drove home the idea that hair and femininity are related. One sentence from the work gives a good summary of the thesis: “… the argument here presents hair as a cultural tool that shapes black women’s ideas about race, gender, sexuality and images of beauty and power.” (Banks, 2004, 144). The experiences of the interviewed women are used in an attempt to completely …show more content…
This was an effective start because it drew the reader in with something they likely had heard about at some point, and if they had not, it informed them of it. The topic was Venus Williams hair at the Australian Open for tennis- braided with beads in it. Banks says that was the moment she realized “…hair STILL matters for black women…” (Banks, 2004, 144). An important section of the paper is when she discusses more historical ideas of what hair means. She mentions Freud as a theorist who was interested in the social importance of hair (Banks, 2004, 144). Banks builds up to discussing her own unique research by looking at the research of others. I found this very effective in ensuring the reader stays