Natural Hair Commentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OL7XZ-bfVo
The maker of the video is obviously poking fun at the biased attitudes towards natural African American hairstyles, but her humor really does make some interesting points.  One of the ones that stuck out most to me was her titling of the natural look as "slave hair," which has a negative connotation going deeper than more everyday, colloquial sayings like "nappy" (although this is by no means positive). That really focuses on the class aspect of discrimination, as one cannot be lower in society than a slave.  Another point that I found interesting was that natural hair could be considered "manly," and that women who wear their hair in such a style are somehow less feminine than women who use products such as pricey relaxers.  At one point, the maker mentions that the only way to distinguish a woman wearing a natural style from a man was judging if she had a "bootie" or not, which drew my attention to the sexualization towards women's bodies, especially when hair is not an immediate indicator.  American society relies on hair length so much to tell us whether or not a woman is properly feminine, and many negative connotations are given to women who fail to meet these criteria.  For example, women of any race who have short hair are often mistaken/labeled as lesbians (they have "butch hair") whether they are actually homosexual or not.  I have had numerous people tell me my hair is so pretty and girly, which I both appreciate yet have to bite my tongue because I know plenty of heterosexual "girly-girls" who have shorter hair.  However, it usually seems more of a double-edged sword for African American women than other races (from what I have heard, not that I have a first hand experience) because many wish to help their hair remain healthy (and thus be able to retain femininity) by letting it grow natural but are then labeled as lesbian if the length is short or otherwise taunted because of the hair's texture.  Hopefully if more people see the natural look on a daily basis, it will become less of an issue, but always easier said than done.