Black Women's Hair and Questions of Freedom

Abstract

Are perms, wigs, and hair extensions discursive symbols of black women’s unfreedom? Hair blogs, television shows, and magazines recently revived this debate. This popularized discussion invariably becomes a two-sided debate: one side contends that natural hair epitomizes authentic self-actualization and the other side extols the pragmatic virtues of processed hair. Although there’s a light-hearted dimension to this debate, there are complex, theoretical points about black women and contemporary questions of freedom. More specifically, what institutions shape or inhibit black women’s choices when it comes to their aesthetic presentation? Why is black women’s hair central to this polemical debate about black liberation and freedom? Can black women influence the discursive meanings of black hair? Is black women’s hair an overdetermined phenomenon? Professor Threadcraft and Rutgers’ graduate student Ndubuizu critically analyze four popular black women’s blogs on hair to examine the theoretical complexity of black women’s aesthetic choices. While black women are able to demonstrate limited agency by imagining their hair as a performative site of theatrics, Threadcraft and Ndubuizu ultimately argue that black women rarely control the material and discursive meanings of their aesthetic choices as well as what constitutes black beauty.