I. Race and Appearance in American Culture

A. Jacobs-Huey: linguistic anthropological overview of hair practices and discourses among African American women
B. Hair is just hair, hair is not just hair
C. Hair, along with skin color, as key racial marker in US
D. Language: context, the other "n-word", salons, comedy clubs, religious meetings, internet, conventions, cosmetology training
E. Debates about hair, representations, and identity

 

II. 19th Century Politics of Race and Appearance

A. Charlotte Forten Grimke, Philadelphia, 1850s

1. Recognized for talent and refinement
2. Wrote in journal: "'Have realized more deeply and bitterly than ever in my life my own ignorance and folly. Not only am I without gifts of Nature, wit, beauty, and talent... but I am not even intelligent. Hattie Purvis is [however] quite attractive, with such long, light hair, and beautiful blue eyes'" (Rooks 1996, 23).

B. Why does she feel this way?
C. Emulation and hair straightening

1. Hair as marker of backwardness
2. Hair as obstacle to achieving civilized status
3. Skin whiteners, hair straighteners allow one to become more of a person

D. Competing discourse

1. 19th century African American activists said self-loathing due to lack of "white" features was a problem
2. Discussion led by middle-class men

 

III. Early 20th Century: African American Women's Beauty Advertisements

A. Women enter public debate about appearance
B. Skin lightening and hair straightening as fashion
C. Madam T. D. Perkins

1. Beautify one's hair
2. Hair is not a natural given, but something that can be improved
3. Biblical references to glory of women's long hair
4. Take charge of hair, take charge of life

 

IV. Madam C. J. Walker and the Recoding of African American Hair

A. Invented straightening comb and line of haircare products
B. Marketed herself and her success as well as products
C. Early life

1. Born in 1867 to Louisiana sharecroppers
2. Orphaned in 1874
3. Married young to get away from brother-in-law
4. Widowed with one child at age 20
5. Moved to Missouri, worked as washerwoman
6. Encountered middle class blacks
7. Resolved to change her appearance in quest for self-improvement
8. Created hair care products: shampoo, hair growing conditioner, light oil, and heated comb

D. Marketed effects of products on one's life, including her own: American ideology of raising oneself up by bootstraps
E. Relationship to Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois

1. Similar emphasis on American dream, entrepreneurship, self-empowerment
2. But challenged gender norms of domesticity
3. Accusation that Walker promoted white standards of beauty

F. Walker's response

1. Rhetorical rejection of term "hair straightener" (similarity to hair "silkening" in Jacobs-Huey)
2. Tool to improve women's lives
3. Take course, open a shop
4. Walker funded media attention on her own rags-to-riches story

G. Walker's success built on itself
H. Hair salon as site of African American women's sociality, economic independence, and empowerment

 

V. Black Power, the Natural Look, and Beauty Parlors

A. 19th century: natural hair
B. 1920s: straightened hair as marker of African American middle class
C. 1960s-70s: Afros and locks
D. Role of salons

1. Gossip, news
2. Support each other
3. Get nurtured
4. Make money, become self-sufficient

a. Women's empowerment through entrepreneurship
b. Woman' centered beauty industry
c. Allowed some to join ranks of middle class

5. Arguments made 40 years before Friedan

 

VI. Language and Expertise

A. Kitchen stylist
B. Establishment of expertise through language

1. Doctors who treat sick hair

a. Example: Joyce and Nana G: "I sort of wanted to see your hair grow."
b. Specialized jargon: curly, wavy, fine, shampoo, curling iron, hair silkening, hairstylist

2. Divine calling

a. Cosmetologists for Christ
b. Prayer as daily business strategy
c. Power of touch

 

VII. Stand-Up Comedy

A. "Gendered, political, and other symbolic meanings of Black hair and hair care are negotiated" (71).
B. Darryl Brunson
C. Jocelyn Jee
D. Laura Hayes
E. In-group knowledge, incongruities, veiled meanings
F. Look beyond simple semiotics, consider hair as sociocultural lens and site of negotiation = "becoming"
G. Monday: Find comedy clips, blogs, or listservs to illustrate points raised by Jacobs-Huey

 

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For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu