I. Introduction A. As a young Black Woman in America who recently transitioned to embracing my natural hair the positive comments on my hair has been overshadowed by the multitude of confused stares I receive from strangers in public, and the unfiltered conversations on the reason pertaining to my decision to be “Natural”. Those experiences launched my curiosity on the politics and history of Black Women and their natural hair in America. Instead of conceptualizing that Black Women are beginning a journey to true acceptance of self when embracing their natural hair, they are shunned upon for not conforming to Society’s westernized standards of beauty. Thus, Black Women’s natural hair is employed as a form of resistance to our cultural history
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Rooks, N. M. (1996). Hair raising: Beauty, culture, and African American women. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press.
A. Summary of Book
In Hair Raising, Rooks takes her audience on a journey that recollects her childhood experiences to adulthood about her Hair. As she explores her thoughts and reasoning for her decision of grooming practices on her hair, it showcases how other young Black Females felt pressured to succumb to society’s standards of beauty. Rooks, speaks heavily on the past, and present images of Black Women’s Hair in the media, and how it shaped the stigma of “Nappy” Hair.
--Relationship to First Point
Rooks speaks on how hair is related to social identity and power, and by the mid-1920s, straight hair had become the preferred texture to signal middle class. It was as if straight hair had signaled respect and acceptance not from White Americans but to other African Americans as well. Rooks speaks on how Madame C.J. Walker’s invention of the hot comb was more than a tool to straighten hair but it helped problematize class-based assumptions about the meaning of hair. Madame C.J. Walker recreated an “acceptable” representation for Black Woman that challenged patriarchal ideologies of class
Rooks, N. M. (1996). Hair raising: Beauty, culture, and African American women. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press.
A. Summary of Book
In Hair Raising, Rooks takes her audience on a journey that recollects her childhood experiences to adulthood about her Hair. As she explores her thoughts and reasoning for her decision of grooming practices on her hair, it showcases how other young Black Females felt pressured to succumb to society’s standards of beauty. Rooks, speaks heavily on the past, and present images of Black Women’s Hair in the media, and how it shaped the stigma of “Nappy” Hair.
--Relationship to First Point
Rooks speaks on how hair is related to social identity and power, and by the mid-1920s, straight hair had become the preferred texture to signal middle class. It was as if straight hair had signaled respect and acceptance not from White Americans but to other African Americans as well. Rooks speaks on how Madame C.J. Walker’s invention of the hot comb was more than a tool to straighten hair but it helped problematize class-based assumptions about the meaning of hair. Madame C.J. Walker recreated an “acceptable” representation for Black Woman that challenged patriarchal ideologies of class