Shiesa Hill

4/3/17

WGSS Media Analysis Paper

Don’t touch my hair

I have chosen to write my paper on something I know all too well. In black culture hair is

something that is a constant battle. You either conform to society’s beauty standards and get a

relaxer to look more ‘white passing” or you let your hair be natural and free. In this ideal ology,

there is a battle both within the black community and the outside worlds opinions. The outside

world (mainly the non-POC part) likes to input its ideas on how we should wear our hair and

what would look best according to them. It’s something that is both infuriating and confusing.

The image I chose to analyze is of Blue Ivy, she is Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s daughter, her

hair as you probably guessed is natural. The media chose to jump in and state all their opinions

on why she looks “nappy”, ‘unkempt’, and “in need of a brush”. In the normative day to day

world if you see a black woman or child, they usually have relaxed or straightened hair. To

continually project that idea of Eurocentric beauty. seeing someone with a bigger media presence

and meaning to pop culture with natural hair, was id assume a shock to modern culture. In class,

we have talked about how black culture and day to day culture are of two separate worlds. What

I experience as a black woman isn’t going to be easily translated to my white counterpart.

 Natural hair is defined as, “Your natural hair is when your hair is in the state that you

were born with. Hair that is not permed, dyed, relaxed, or chemically altered.” The definition has

changed and been altered within the black community amongst women, because colored hair or

straightened hair is still natural. It is looked upon outsiders as wrong and not the norm. my

comparison for this media image of Blue with her natural hair is the song “Don’t Touch my

Hair”, by Solange Knowles Beyoncé’s younger sister. In this song, she talks about the struggle of

being black in America and being a woman and making the choice to live with her hair. That her

hair is hers and as such shouldn’t be shamed or messed with. Her culture her being are entities

that help make her community strong. She says “Don’t touch my hair, when it’s the feelings I

wear”. Which I took to mean that as a woman she’s going into the world her whole natural self

and not afraid to won it, but don’t touch the hair that has been passed down through generations,

it’s not a game or something to be ridiculed or laughed it.

I connect a lot with the idea of being my natural self not only as a black woman but as a

woman in and of its self. My hair is something I take a lot of pride in, I was blessed with good

hair and I rock it like no other. But when people go to touch my hair or make fun of it, it breaks

me. Am I not woman enough to be considered beautiful for my texture of hair? Am I too

eroticized because my hair is sometimes nappy or sometimes super defined? As a woman, I don’t

expect everyone to respect my cultural norms of not touching my hair or asking how or why it is

so curly. But as a black woman I expect a certain level of respect when I say, my hair is curly

because I am black and Cherokee. It is not an invitation for you to comment on my ethnicity or

the way my hair looks. It’s not an invitation for you to touch my hair. When people took it upon

themselves to comment on Blue and the way her hair was I was more than infuriated. Not
because it was a backlash on the black community but because as a young child, she’s going to

grow and hear that she isn’t beautiful enough by society’s standards. She’s going to feel pressure

to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards and no woman black, Hispanic, or Cherokee should

ever feel that because their hair isn’t straight and relaxed that they are not enough.

One of the great things about black hair and the way it curls and coils is that you can

manipulate it in any way you want and you can still be just as beautiful as the white woman next

to you. Don’t touch my hair unless you ask first and don’t comment on its natural state unless

you yourself have black or POC natural hair. It is not the place of the media or Non-POC

community to tell me what is beautiful. I am not going to get any lighter and my hair isn’t going

to naturally be straight. And I am perfectly fine with that. I love how I look my features, my

voice, my skin tone, and my culture all helped shape me into the young proud black woman I am

today. In short I feel like there needs to be more positivity projected on the black community and

the women in it that are helping make natural hair be more accepted and loved.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Natural%20Hair

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/solangeknowles/donttouchmyhair.html