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Do white people care how black women wear their hair?

Do white people have an opinion on ethnic hairstyles

  • As long as said ethnic hairstyle looks kept, I don't care

    Votes: 5 9.6%

  • I think ethnic hairstyles such as afros and dreadlocks are unprofessional

    Votes: 3 5.8%

  • I think straight hair looks better on black women

    Votes: 4 7.7%

  • I've never even gave it a thought

    Votes: 44 84.6%
  • Total voters
    52
1069 said:
Well, I haven't dyed my hair in over a year (not to say I never will again; I might someday).
And many other women do nothing to their hair, ever. (Missypea).

And I never colored my hair to look "more professional".
If anything, I probably look more professional with my gray streak, which makes me look older.
I colored my hair to look younger and sexier.

There's a difference. Do you see the difference?
Society is not telling me that I need to change anything about my natural appearance in order to look "more professional".
Society basically tells me that in order to look "professional", all I have to do is not to change my natural appearance overmuch (ie, the "mohawk" example, pink hair, etc).
On the other hand, claiming that black women look better with "straight" or processed hair is telling them the opposite: that their natural appearance is unacceptable in a professional setting, and that in order to be "professional" they should alter it to an extreme degree.
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Missy straightens her hair every morning. I also included straightening in those things which every woman I know has done at some point.

Society doesn't tell anyone anything, since society cannot speak as one. If you want to look professional, hair is a good start. If you don't, don't bother. Do you wash and comb? Do you use products? We all do something, and that something depends on how we want to be viewed. Frankly, I couldn't care less about society. I just dress and do my hair for me.

I see what you're saying about black women, but I don't agree that all fro's look unprofessional. Some look real cute. But it's the same for caucasian women with say long hair. If it's hanging down to your a$$ with split ends and dandruff, it's not going to look as refined as long hair cut just enough to look styled.
 
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1069 said:
On the other hand, claiming that black women look better with "straight" or processed hair is telling them the opposite: that their natural appearance is unacceptable in a professional setting, and that in order to be "professional" they should alter it to an extreme degree.
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That's odd then. According to your subtle-coercion formula, one would expect to see all black women in academia, business, movies, television, commercials, magazines, etc. with straight "acceptable" hair. I don't see this phenomena at all. I don't think anyone else does either.
 
One would think a forum member of your alleged status, Tashah, would be able to debate a hypothetical topic (we're both white, after all, so what else could it be besides hypothetical?) without employing subtle putdowns of her opponent's position in every post ("wtf, lol"; "You should get out more", etc), if there were any validity at all to her position and if she wasn't defensive because she realizes, deep down, that her position is inherently racist.
These putdowns are merely a subconscious defense mechanism. We begin to employ them when we realize, on some level, that the positions we are attempting to defend are in fact indefensible.
 
Let's face it Ten. There are literally thousands of hair products today strictly for black women. Why? Because black women are a huge market and black women (like all women) prefer a vast range of choice.

Your racism arguments here are specious and quite frankly... out of vogue.
 
Let's face it Ten. There are literally thousands of hair products today strictly for black women. Why?
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Because systematic racism still exists in our culture, and there is a constant and subtle societal pressure on black women to alter their natural appearance and attempt to emulate white women.
 
We've heard from Hatuey (hope he contributes more). Would be nice to hear from Laila, Blackdog, bhkad, Dark Wizard, etc.
 
1069 said:
Because systematic racism still exists in our culture, and there is a constant and subtle societal pressure on black women to alter their natural appearance and attempt to emulate white women.
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I think the effect of intermarriage between blacks and whites is changing styles too.

Lightness and darkness of skin color and facial features is still a status issue among people of color.
 
1069 said:
Because systematic racism still exists in our culture, and there is a constant and subtle societal pressure on black women to alter their natural appearance and attempt to emulate white women.
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What you are referring to sounds like internalized oppression.


"External oppression is the unjust exercise of authority and power by one group over another. It includes imposing one group's belief system, values and life ways over another group.

External oppression becomes internalized oppression when we come to believe and act as if the oppressor's beliefs system, values, and life way is reality."
Internalized Oppression
 
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Hatuey said:
I am not tedious with my grooming. I can't help the fact I was blessed with beautiful curly hair, soft brown skin and a great body. I can't. It's all in the DNA.
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It really is all about the DNA. Some people are 55 and look 35 without ever trying. :shrug:

And even if I wasn't Afros are a sign of the motherland. Ghetto.
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I guess it's to each his own. I don't associate afros with being ghetto. To me, they're natural and I like the natural look. That's not to say I don't like other looks, hair that is processed, colored, etc. because I do.

The picture you posted of the woman in the afro? I think she's beautiful and her hair is lovely. You say potato and I say pahtahto.


:2wave:
 
herenow1 said:
In the blogworld ppl are commenting on Michelles hair at different events and it sparked this question. If Michelle wore her hair with an afro and a headband, or had manicured locs, or didn't have a relaxer, or didn't use heat, would the world look at her differently? Would people automatically assume she doen't take pride in her appearance?
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I am a man I know sweet f..all about this subject. But I can tell you as a white guy (actually pinkish-green/grey) my wife who I have been married to for twenty years who is Jamaican always is complemented by white women on her locks.

Me I am losing my hair. I only seem to grow it in my nose or ears now. Its not fair.

I am no expert but I know my wife has been insulted by black women not white women on her hair. They make some pretty wierd rude comments. But that is just what I have observed and it may mean nothing. If you ask me it seems there is tension between black women who keep their hair natural and the ones who straighten their hair. But I really do not know. Usually when they get into that stuff, I quickly leave. I do not have enough hair to offer an
opinion. I guess I would like my wife even if she was bald.
 
I'm a white guy who is raising his biracial niece. She has african-american hair. Without frying her hair, there aren't too many options. African-american hair is totally different than other ethnicities' hair.
 
I think this entire issue is ridiculous.
I straighten my hair, my hair is naturally curly but i prefer it straightened. I do not think i emulate white females nor do i believe we are secretly oppressed by them. I look fine with or without curly hair and i have been insulted more by black women than i have any other race for "acting white". What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?
I do not like afros personally, i too find them unprofessional in a work setting
 
I guess it's to each his own. I don't associate afros with being ghetto.
Click to expand...

This is one of the few times I wish I had college, or some sort of formal education. It's frustrating not having the right words to describe what I see.

Hatuey makes an analogy where he compares afros with mohawks.

Yet afros are what happens to black people's hair when they don't do anything to it, ie it's the natural state of their hair.
What is considered "radical" among black people is merely looking natural. All they have to do to be considered "radical", "ghetto", subversive, iconoclastic, and possibly dangerous to the established order of things is not process their hair so that it looks like white people's hair. All they have to do is be their natural selves, to be considered radical.

Whereas white people have to alter themselves to extreme degrees- mohawks, unnaturally colored hair dye, piercings, tattoos- in order to achieve this same "outsider" status. Just going around looking natural and "unprocessed" is not enough, at least not since the 1960s.

This reminds me for some reason of Freud, and his studies of turn-of-the-century women and girls which caused him to develop the theory of "penis envy"; the theory that all girls, at a certain age, feel inferior because they realize they don't have penises and never will.
Freud never realized that this phenomenon was a product of the time and place he lived, that he was seeing it through the lens of the intensely patriarchal society he operated in. Girls felt inferior and depressed when they got old enough to realize that their society considered them inferior because they lacked penises, and that they would never have the same rights or status as their contemporaries who had penises.
It was not the physical organ they envied; it was the acceptance and power this organ bestowed. They didn't want penises, they wanted equality. They wanted to be accepted fully as valuable members of the society they lived in, and they knew they never would, because of what they had (or more to the point, what they lacked) between their legs.

Do you see the correlation I'm trying to draw here?
I'm sorry I don't have the education to say this better.
If blacks (as well as whites) think "processed", unnatural hair looks better on other blacks, it may not be a purely aesthetic preference. It may be subconsciously influenced by the fact that whites in our society have historically been the privileged and ruling class, and blacks have been the underprivileged and oppressed class.
People view everything through the lens of the social context it exists in.
I'm only asking people to try to remove the lens and look at it objectively.
I think it's really important that we do so.
Why would black people in their natural state be considered unacceptable ("unprofessional", "radical", "ghetto", etc), while white people are encouraged to remain as close to their natural state as possible in order to be "socially acceptable"?
Do you understand at ALL what I'm trying to say>?
 
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Not to worry.

By 2019 we'll be blaming the straight-hair look on the Chinese :2razz:
 
Laila said:
I think this entire issue is ridiculous.
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It's only a little ridiculous. ;)

I do think it's a personal preference thing. Everyone wants to feel good inside of their own skin.
 
I prefer straight but it depends on the woman.
 
missypea said:
It's only a little ridiculous. ;)

I do think it's a personal preference thing. Everyone wants to feel good inside of their own skin.
Click to expand...

Absolutely.
I do love my curly hair but it is a bitch to control, straight hair is very easy to manage. I am very lazy individual, i cannot be bothered to spend hours every night on it

Besides, i think straight hair suits me more and i have changed the colour of my hair. It is naturally a inky black but i made it more brown.
 
I had absolutely no idea this was an "issue".

I'm utterly indifferent to the whole thing. If a women, of whatever race, looks good with her hair whatever way it is, (whether it is "ethnically correct" or not), then fine. If she looks bad, well then she just does. Whatever.

I find it impossible to give a rat's heiney about it. Then again, I'm a man, so maybe that's it. If I had a dollar for everytime I've heard women viciously criticize other women over hair/clothes/makeup/etc, I could retire... :beat
 
1069 said:
This is one of the few times I wish I had college, or some sort of formal education. It's frustrating not having the right words to describe what I see.

Hatuey makes an analogy where he compares afros with mohawks.

Yet afros are what happens to black people's hair when they don't do anything to it, ie it's the natural state of their hair.
What is considered "radical" among black people is merely looking natural. All they have to do to be considered "radical", "ghetto", subversive, iconoclastic, and possibly dangerous to the established order of things is not process their hair so that it looks like white people's hair. All they have to do is be their natural selves, to be considered radical.

Whereas white people have to alter themselves to extreme degrees- mohawks, unnaturally colored hair dye, piercings, tattoos- in order to achieve this same "outsider" status. Just going around looking natural and "unprocessed" is not enough, at least not since the 1960s.

This reminds me for some reason of Freud, and his studies of turn-of-the-century women and girls which caused him to develop the theory of "penis envy"; the theory that all girls, at a certain age, feel inferior because they realize they don't have penises and never will.
Freud never realized that this phenomenon was a product of the time and place he lived, that he was seeing it through the lens of the intensely patriarchal society he operated in. Girls felt inferior and depressed when they got old enough to realize that their society considered them inferior because they lacked penises, and that they would never have the same rights or status as their contemporaries who had penises.
It was not the physical organ they envied; it was the acceptance and power this organ bestowed. They didn't want penises, they wanted equality. They wanted to be accepted fully as vasluable members of the society they lived in, and they knew they never would, because of what they had (or more to the point, what they lacked) between their legs.

Do you see the correlation I'm trying to draw here?
I'm sorry I don't have the education to say this better.
If blacks (as well as whites) think "processed", unnatural hair looks better on other blacks, it may not be a purely aesthetic preference. It may be subconsciously influenced by the fact that whites in our society have historically been the privileged and ruling class, and blacks have been the underprivileged and oppressed class.
People view everything through the lens of the social context it exists in.
I'm only asking people to try to remove the lens and look at it objectively.
I think it's really important that we do so.
Why would black people in their natural state be considered unacceptable ("unprofessional", "radical", "ghetto", etc), while white people are encouraged to remain as close to their natursl state as posible in order to be "socially acceptable"?
Do you understand at ALL what I'm trying to say>?
Click to expand...

I hear what you are saying 10. I think for some people, it's the same as their distaste for men with long hair. My Father inlaw thinks that goatees are unprofessional looking. (I have long hair and a goatee. :mrgreen:).

For me, I think there is nothing worse than the middle aged combover. It looks ridiculous. It might as well be a mohawk.
 
I like dreads, myself. I also like afros or any other hair style.

Hair is just play stuff. Anything that actually matters is somewhere else.
 
Laila said:
Absolutely.
I do love my curly hair but it is a bitch to control, straight hair is very easy to manage. I am very lazy individual, i cannot be bothered to spend hours every night on it

Besides, i think straight hair suits me more and i have changed the colour of my hair. It is naturally a inky black but i made it more brown.
Click to expand...

Do you ever go swimming? I know women who straighten their hair and don't ever swim because of the labor it takes to fix their hair.
 
independent_thinker2002 said:
Do you ever go swimming? I know women who straighten their hair and don't ever swim because of the labor it takes to fix their hair.
Click to expand...

If my hair gets wet (I live in London, my hair always gets wet from the rain) i just continue like normal, my hair just goes back to my natural curls so i do not mind swimming
 
1069 said:
Hatuey makes an analogy where he compares afros with mohawks.

Yet afros are what happens to black people's hair when they don't do anything to it, ie it's the natural state of their hair.

Do you see the correlation I'm trying to draw here?
Click to expand...


Yes, I do see where you're coming from. I agree with you.

I don't think that every black person who processes their hair does so because they want to fit into a "white" society though. I think it's much more personal than that. Hatuey's just being Hatuey.



.
 
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