The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Good Hair (2010)

I was watching Chris Rock's "Good Hair" yesterday, and made a posting about it on Face Book. It is an hysterical journey through the sub-culture of hair straightening, presented largely through interviews, with Chris mugging and cracking jokes along the way. What came up on Facebook was a huge amount of anger about the semi-documentary, mostly from black women who wished that he'd talked more about the social pressures that force black women to do these things. White culture, black men, etc.--these are the "causes" that force black women to slather their hair with caustic chemicals, or buy multi-thousand dollar "weaves" to pretend that their hair is naturally straight, or "good."

First, it isn't Chris Rock's job to do that. He's a comedian, not a philosopher. Secondly, it isn't his job to adhere to someone else's political agenda. Women say that men make them do it. Men complain that their women make them pay for it. None of this sounds very adult to me. First, you're dealing with protective coloration, and fitting into the herd. After WW2, during the Allied occupation of Japan, Japanese women had breast enlargement surgery and rounded their eyes to fit in, and attract the dominant males. They chose to do this, to make advantage for themselves. The men who pay for their women's straight hair CHOSE those women...and probably in part for the very hair they complain about. When men, or women, chose to make themselves more attractive in order to elicit responses from the opposite sex, or people of whatever group choose to modify behaviors, dress, or body composition in order to "fit into" the herd, these are things animals have done since herd behavior first began.

It is fascinating to watch supposed adults complaining about this stuff, rather than taking the more mature position of "I choose to play this game" or "I choose not to." Instead, you get victimology: "they" made you earn more money, buy that car, wear high heels, lose weight, wear makeup, act aggressive, straighten hair, lighten skin, get a tan, etc. etc. etc.

And here's the joke: when you do that, you make yourself fit for a relationship ONLY with someone else who plays the same games. And trust me, they won't play it in exactly the arena where you play it. Which means that if you remain unconscious to your own immature reaction, you will chafe at those of your partner, never grasping that he or she is merely a mirror.

It is not fair or unfair, it just is. It is not fair that rabbits have to watch out for hawks, but they can either spend their time moping about it, or get on with their lives and watch out for fast-moving shadows. It pains me to watch people giving their power away. Probably because it is so painful when I catch myself doing it. Where do you give your power away, blaming the world instead of taking responsibility for your reactions?

8 comments:

Pagan Topologist said...

OFF TOPIC

Steve, I am going to post some comments about Avatar over on 5MM, since I waited so long to see it. I know that you said the board was not working properly, but I have had not trouble posting there. If you prefer, I will repost it somewhere, maybe my own blog.

David

Nancy Lebovitz said...

From what I've read, a lot of the pressure for black women to straighten their hair comes from other women-- especially their mothers.

Tami said...

I hate to say this, but I'm starting to see this a lot...Adults are starting to behave like children & not have an original thought of their own...I straighten my hair because I like the way it looks...When I was younger, I wore natural styles...My hair is just another expression of who I am...I have surpassed blaming blame on white culture.

Nancy Lebovitz said...

Tami, how sure are you that adults are becoming less responsible, as distinct from always having been pretty irresponsible?

My impression is that there may have been a shift from "I'm doing this because it's obviously correct" to "I'm doing this because someone else made me".

If so, I see this as progress even if it's annoying to listen to.

"Obviously correct" offers fewer chances learn that it's a choice than "someone else made me do it".

Anonymous said...

Hair schmair. Won't mean a damn thing when I hit the 50s-70s and up. I'll be grateful to just be here and BALD if that's the way it turns out. Life increases, vanity decreases. One hopes.

Sharon Dawkins

Anonymous said...

Nobody ever told me to straighten my hair or pressured me to. But, it was what I saw the few black women in my environment do. So it is what I did.

Two years ago I had the good fortune to meet a few professional black women with natural hair. Natural hair didn't seem to hinder their social, romantic, or professional success. Then I noticed other attractive black women with natural hair on the streets and occasionally in commercials and print advertisements.

I also read Your Money or Your Life and realized that I was spending thousands of dollars a year to get my hair straightened. Despite the fact that I hated going to the salon and didn't really like the way my hair looked!

I realized that I could choose to wear my hair in its natural texture.

I got some negative feedback from both male and female relatives. My father was a notable exception. But, I got plenty of compliments from people I encountered at work or wherever.

Anonymous said...

"It is not fair or unfair, it just is. It is not fair that rabbits have to watch out for hawks, but they can either spend their time moping about it, or get on with their lives and watch out for fast-moving shadows."

OTOH, people can be fairer to other people than hawks can be to rabbits.

Tyra Banks did an episode about these issues on her talk show too. I didn't see the episode myself, but an Asian immigrant I know told me she saw it. This lady was angry, like "Blacks should get to have their hair any way they want! Telling them they don't look professional if they keep it natural is racist!" instead of "oh well, that's just the way it is here."

See, she has straight hair herself and *doesn't* need to pick on other people for keeping their hair as naturally kinky as she keeps hers naturally straight the way hawks need to eat meat. ;)

Anonymous said...

"...When men, or women, chose to make themselves more attractive in order to elicit responses from the opposite sex, or people of whatever group choose to modify behaviors, dress, or body composition in order to 'fit into' the herd, these are things animals have done since herd behavior first began..."

And when it's done in order to 'fit into' interviewer's likely standards of what looks employable, these are things individuals have done since much earlier (making the effort to go get something that can be converted into energy for the body to use, whether a protist swimming around the better to find other cells to eat or a human trying to get a job to earn money to exchange for food to eat).