Are perms, wigs, and hair extensions discursive symbols of black women’s unfreedom? Hair blogs, television shows, and magazines recently revived this debate. This popularized discussion invariably becomes a two-sided debate: one side contends that natural hair epitomizes authentic self-actualization and the other side extols the pragmatic virtues of processed hair. Although there’s a light-hearted dimension to this debate, there are complex, theoretical points about black women and contemporary questions of freedom. More specifically, what institutions shape or inhibit black women’s choices when it comes to their aesthetic presentation? Why is black women’s hair central to this polemical debate about black liberation and freedom? Can black women influence the discursive meanings of black hair? Is black women’s hair an overdetermined phenomenon? Professor Threadcraft and Rutgers’ graduate student Ndubuizu critically analyze four popular black women’s blogs on hair to examine the theoretical complexity of black women’s aesthetic choices. While black women are able to demonstrate limited agency by imagining their hair as a performative site of theatrics, Threadcraft and Ndubuizu ultimately argue that black women rarely control the material and discursive meanings of their aesthetic choices as well as what constitutes black beauty.
{"title":"Black Women's Hair and Questions of Freedom","authors":"Rosemary Ndubuizu, Shatema Threadcraft","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2349402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2349402","url":null,"abstract":"Are perms, wigs, and hair extensions discursive symbols of black women’s unfreedom? Hair blogs, television shows, and magazines recently revived this debate. This popularized discussion invariably becomes a two-sided debate: one side contends that natural hair epitomizes authentic self-actualization and the other side extols the pragmatic virtues of processed hair. Although there’s a light-hearted dimension to this debate, there are complex, theoretical points about black women and contemporary questions of freedom. More specifically, what institutions shape or inhibit black women’s choices when it comes to their aesthetic presentation? Why is black women’s hair central to this polemical debate about black liberation and freedom? Can black women influence the discursive meanings of black hair? Is black women’s hair an overdetermined phenomenon? Professor Threadcraft and Rutgers’ graduate student Ndubuizu critically analyze four popular black women’s blogs on hair to examine the theoretical complexity of black women’s aesthetic choices. While black women are able to demonstrate limited agency by imagining their hair as a performative site of theatrics, Threadcraft and Ndubuizu ultimately argue that black women rarely control the material and discursive meanings of their aesthetic choices as well as what constitutes black beauty.","PeriodicalId":416042,"journal":{"name":"2014 National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS) Annual Meeting (Archive)","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114910644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：