Hey Girl Am I More Then My Hair Summary

Reading Response #2

People assimilate their hair to European standards to give them the ability to survive harsh conditions from White people. In Hey Girl, am I More then My hair?: African American Women and their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image and Hair, a 2006 journal article by Tracey Owens Patton she talks about the intersections of connections between hair, gender, and the construction of race. She explains many ideas of oppression and makes sure to constantly go back to her point that certain hair types have power and benefits in society. Juxtaposes beauty standards of African and Euro American, Theoretical framework of standpoint theory and Afrocentric theory, body, image, and race, of oppression with Black women, and redefining standards

Standpoint Theory and Afrocentric Theory both aim to include all people and redefine our interpretation of beauty. Both ideas focus on to celebrate the self. People have celebrated the self by creating the vagina monologue where women were able to talk about their sexuality, period, breast, vagina, pubic hair, reclaiming words, ect. Women are able to talk about topics that society does not feel comfortable to talk about openly. The vagina monologues have now adjusted their inclusion to include trans women because being born with a vagina does not entitle anyone to being a woman. The people of vagina monologues knew that not including trans women are only hurting their message of inclusivity. They were able to come together and talk about how trans women have the same characteristics as any women, which is the goal of Standpoint Theory and Afrocentric Theory. Society has to continuously modify its vision to see how everyone plays a part in this world, how they all relate, and to celebrate the

People who live in poverty or Low SES do not have the money to afford hair upkeep, which leads them to less opportunity in job opportunities. Women then compare themselves to other women for not being able to afford high end products, which causes internalized racism because they are able to rank themselves over other women in their race who cannot afford high end products. Women are then ridiculed for keeping their hair natural, and have fought back to make sure their identity is not taken away from them. “A Black Zara employee was told that her hair did not fit Zara’s image because her hair was styled in unique braid pattern. The employee felt that she was being discriminated on her race and brought the issue to HR. She did not like the agreement that HR had discussed with her about signing a confidentiality form on the issue. She took matters into her own hands by continuing to publically fight back till she feels that justice/education is brought to the managers”. (Pop Trigger, 2016) The world needs to take any opportunity of injustice to make sure that issue does not get unnoticed. The former Zara employee saw an opportunity to share to the world on how hatred is still alive and did not want her voice to be unnoticed by not singing the confidentiality forms. Society must speak up and fight back in order to get rid of