...“I wish I were white.” I was merely seven years old when I abruptly spoke those words into existence. It was around late evening, which was about that time that my mother would wrestle around with my hair for over an hour while I complained over each piece of lint she removed from my kinky mane. Being tender-headed with a head full of hair was a feature that I was so unpleased with, and it was all the more reason why I felt the way I did. At school, I would examine my white friends and their long, flowy hair. I felt like a sore thumb and felt as though there was an aura of jealously looming around me in every given moment. For my 8th birthday, my parents gave me an unsightly pink wig that I willfully wore every day after school. I’m not certain...
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...Braids Countless women in mainstream American culture search to find ways to look their very best from the head down, beginning with their hairstyles they chose to wear. In fact, a popular hairstyle coming up in publicity now is a form of braids, know to many as “cornrows”. Numerous women who are doing YouTube tutorials on this style and modeling it in ostentatious magazines do not even know the history and mentality surrounding the creation of this complex hairstyle. Rather they are wearing it as an impetuous way to stay in trend. Cornrow braids are not only another hairstyle to wear in America’s evolving beauty system, they are also an added layer of cultural meaning that shows African history and cultural expression. During the 1970’s, braids close to the scalp, or cornrow braids, were used as a way to show black power...
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...Throughout history, African American women have struggled with accepting the hair that grows from our very own scalp. But why? Why don’t African American women embrace their natural curls? I identify with this topic because at one point I did not believe my natural hair was beautiful, instead I desired for my tresses to be long and straight. This misconception that I had learned from those around me led me to getting a relaxer until I finally realized I did not need to have straight hair to be beautiful and the same for other African American women. I know that since our childhood years we have been influenced to believe that long, straight, and silky hair was beautiful and that if our hair wasn’t straight or naturally curly ,it was “nappy”. I also know that there is a notion that to have “good hair” is to have loose curls or wavy hair and “bad hair” is considered as coarse, less defined curls that are often called naps. At a young age, we are accustomed to sitting between our mother’s knees while she combs out every “nap” until it is semi straight and easier to braid or twist. As we got older, we would go to the same salon as our mothers to get our hair “hot combed” until we are old enough to get a texturizer and then a relaxer by the time we are in our mid-teens. Although, the...
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...Colorism "Your eyes are blue, but you ain't white! Your hair is straight 'cuz you pressed it last night!" -School Daze Dehumanization comes in its most rampant form, towards black women, as colorism. A community of African American women stand by with broken self-esteem from a history of colorism creating stigmatism on the ideal body image of an African American female in today's society. The quest for straight hair was often a torturous obsession for the slaves, but it was not just about conforming to the prevailing fashions of the day. Straight hair translated to economic opportunity and social advantage. Because many of the more than one hundred thousand free Blacks in nineteenth-century America were the mulatto offspring of the first African arrivals and their European companions, lighter...
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...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...
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...Last year, Kylie Jenner posted a mirror selfie on Instagram of her hair braided into cornrows with the caption “I woke up like this.” She faced immediate backlash; some fans called her racist, while African American Hunger Games actress Amandla Stenberg accused Jenner of appropriating black culture. Heidi Klum, Justin Timberlake, and Lena Dunham also have received criticism for donning cornrows. This controversy surrounding hairstyles such as cornrows and dreadlocks, often associated with modern African American culture, raises many questions. Is it cultural appropriation to adopt hairstyles often associated with people of another culture? Who possesses the authority to denote it as cultural appreciation or appropriation? Does fighting against cross culture adoption hinder or promote racial progress? According to The Atlantic writer Chris Weller, “we define who we are by the elements that stick with us---people, stories, places, memories---- and we measure ourselves in relation to them;” for many African Americans, these hairstyles represent a vital part of their cultural identity (Weller). Historical implications, double standards, and societal trends continue...
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...Good Hair One of my new favorite documentaries is Good Hair directed by Jeff Stilson and starring comedian Chris Rock. It is a documentary on black women and the hair industry. Rock starts his journey on learning more about black hair after his daughter asked him whether or not she had good hair. Rock dove right into the black hair industry, examining everything from relaxers and weaves to the chemicals in relaxers and where weave comes from. The highlight of this video was that it examines what hair means to black women. A host of celebrities and professionals shared their insight on black women and their hair. I chose this video for my opinion paper because I have always been obsessed with black hair. From the time I was young I knew what a relaxer was and I knew not to talk about a family member’s weave out loud. I have learned so much...
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...natural hair. Advertisement reflected and influenced African American women’s negative perception of their natural hair. The stages as to why they are starting to go natural are coming back in style. The issue is examined throughout history from slavery to present day with a visual analysis of hair care advertisements. Natural hair is gaining more positive implications; this can be affected by creating more positive images with natural hair. Image is part of the problem, image can create the solution. Loving yourself in your natural state; there is nothing like it! If people believe on the opinion based beauty tips in advertisements, they often...
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...individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” C. Wright Mills. Sociology allows one to recognize that their personal condition is an outcome of history and the society you live in. Once you step away from any situation and “think yourself away from the familiar routines of everyday life” you are using something known as the sociological imagination. The concept was coined by C. Wright Mills an American sociologist, it allowed people to look at routines from an entirely new outlook. To cultivate this skill, you need be able to rid yourself from one perspective and look at things from an alternative point of view. Mills leaves us with a couple of questions that can be discussed...
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...recorded as the U.S.’s first black female millionaire. While Annie was coming of age, the popular style among Black women was having straight hair. She decided to make a chemical product to straighten African Americans hair. Annie was the first to do this. Annie was an role model to many women, but was an great inspiring role model to Madam C.J Walker. Annie was born August 19th, 1869 in Metropolis, Illinois to former slaves. Her parents were Robert Turnbo, a poor farmer, and Isabella Cook Turnbo who had 11 children. Annie was the 10th child of the 11. Because her parents died while she was young, Annie was raised by her older sister. She was a sick child...
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...Resistance, and Identity The concept of feminine beauty is dynamic and multi-dimensional. The United States’ mainstream, however, has created an ideal. Currently, long straight hair, petite yet well endowed with curves, among other traits, define the idealized relatively fictitious heterosexual feminine image. Bodies are malleable. Throughout this paper, malleability will be defined as the ability to sculpt the human body like an object. The question is: who controls the sculptor? Often the media, societal pressures, and capitalist incentives heavily influence, if not dictate heterosexual feminine beauty, but there are exceptions. Since the body can be crafted through cosmetics, surgery, and exercise, the pursuit of a better or perfect body is seemingly possible. In reality, achieving the perfect body is a stretch because the target ideal continues to evolve become less humanly possible. These conforming pressures separate body from identity. They impose a beauty image that limits one’s agency and self-worth, but at the same time present an opportunity for redefining...
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...human hair was always used for the wigs. “In the early 1900’s, a weave was actually called a “switch” and they were what we consider clip-ins today” (Brianna Berry-March 24th, 2014-November 11th, 2014-Paragraph 3.) Another form of hair weaving techniques would be hair braiding. Braids have also become very well known, especially in the black community. Many other cultures use hair braiding also, as stated before. For example, Aztec women in the Americas would take colorful pieces of cloth and incorporated them into their braids. Hair braiding in Egypt, of course, was mainly use for royalty, like for their wigs. It is very...
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...dress up in such a way that it reflects their personalities (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel 2013, 132).Therefore, it can be said that men corresponding to this profile will be willing to buy this perfume. Men aged 25 to 40 years old have been targeted because the price of the perfume is quite high. Adolescents or young adults will not be able to afford this perfume and it will not be appropriate for people above 40 years old onwards. ‘’LE BEAU MALE’’ corresponds mainly to working men who perceive themselves as being handsome, smart, successful , attractive and who have a certain status to maintain. Moreover, the endorsement by Jean Paul Gaultier is a pure sign of status. Fashion conscious men who are usually attracted by luxury products would most probably buy this particular flacon. It can be seen from advertisement one that men have been targeted and that the perfume has been designed in a luxurious manner. Additionally, it is young married couples or divorced men without children who would be tempted by this new cologne as these people are already earning a salary. In the case of divorced men without children, they will buy this perfume as back to single; they will most probably go on dates every week and will put on an attractive perfume (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel 2013, 133).Furthermore, this kind of perfume also tallies with achievers, that is, successful, goal-oriented men who focus on career and family (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel 2013, 187). The...
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...American women who change their natural hair to make it straight are committing a practice of self-hatred. Researchers assume that by African American women transitioning their hair to straight hair they are performing a symptomatic of hatred of black physical features and copying white physical characteristics. He explains that African American women with natural hairstyles are likely to agree with the self-hatred theory versus those with altered hair are likely to find serval alternative explanations. Based on the research they examine they concluded that the self-hatred theory overall to a lack of knowledge of Black hair culture. And hair alteration...
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...after death. The African American family was cherished within the African American community due to their history of slavery, the family had bonded in a strong culture. These origins have these families tested family bonds throughout African American history, changing the family makeup by causing these families to become more Americanized and less Africanized following slavery abolishment. Family reunions and events are highly cherished to help maintain the African American culture. Elderly of African American families are celebrated, as they are passing on the African American legacy in this country. The elders provided great perception and common sense into the family and cultural history, also giving good guidance to the younger member into their families. The popularity of family reunions has grown over the past several years. After the civil rights movement, several aspects of the society started to become approachable to African American and...
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