Quote:
Originally posted by Lovealious:
Hello sistafriends,
Finally we are seeing another variety of Blackness in these advertisements. What is so wrong with finally being able to celebrate our roots and not the styles that have been pushed on us for years upon years?
But I believe that since we have only seen light skin women with super straight hair in advertisements for so long some people believe that this is the only acceptable way to look.
The advertisers see it as a fad I believe. It's really evident to me in the Gap Kids add with the little girls singing on the stage like a band. The 'token' black child has her hair flying all over her head, it's appalling to me.. (it doesn’t look like they put a comb through her hair) the other girls (all white) have neatly combed hair, without a strand out of place no funky pony tails nothing.
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Lovealious,
Like you, I won't even touch music videos because I'd be here all day!
The point I was trying to make about Black hair and TV was pretty much reiterated in your statement about the GAP commercial. I understand what you're saying about "seeing another variety of Blackness" on TV, but the thing I'm bothered about is that the media only attempts to give us ONE variety at a time. Yes, it is a media trend, and I guess I'll have to accept that. However, it seems a little biased to me that the trend would shift from light-skinned blacks with straight or naturally curly/fine hair textures to dark-skinned women with extremely kinky, natural styles. What about women like me who fall somewhere in between?!?!?
African Americans are, in my opinion, THE most diverse race of people in that we DON'T fit a certain mold in terms of how we look. We vary GREATLY in skin color, hair color and texture, facial features, body shape, etc. And yet, we are usually only depicted in one way or another on TV-- never as diversely as we really are.
I am extremely happy that we've shifted from the "light is right" trend, but I will never be completely satisfied until we as a physically diverse people are accurately depicted and fully represented in mass communications.
The commericals today seem to be sending a message that blackness is defined by thick and kinky hair (I won't say "natural" because many blacks--dark-skinned and light-skinned alike--have naturally straight hair!). My argument is that blackness is not based on physical attributes. One of my dearest friends is a sistah who could esily pass for white; however, within 2 minutes of talking to or being around her, you'd want to elect her the next president of the NAACP! She radiates BLACKNESS; she's a proud, Afrocentric sistah who makes you feel good about being black. On the other hand, I went to college with a black girl with brown skin and kinky, natural hair, who is an assimilationist who ONLY hung with white students and stood on the side of those white students who argued that our Black Student Union and Black Greek Council (including the frats and sororities in it) were racist, unconstitutional organizations that should be abolished!!!
I do relax my hair religiously every 8 weeks, and as cute as many natural styles are, I doubt I'll ever change. I love my hair and everything about it, so I'm not relaxing it to be white or anything other than the proud, Black woman I am; I relax it because it's less time-consuming to style, not because I detest my natural hair. To be honest, when I first get it relaxed, I hate it because it's too limp! But, when that kinky new-growth starts coming in, you can't tell me I'm not a DIVA!
I would love to see us as Blacks become more accepting of each other's personal expressions. Blacks are priviledged to be able to do more with their hair than any other race of people. Many black hair care books do seem to lean toward the relaxed looks, but I have seen many books that feature natural and braided styles only. We need to start appreciating each other for who we are and not for how we choose to style our hair. I'm all for the natural styles on my sistahs who rock them, but I'm just saying that it's not for me. I just don't want people who choose to wear their hair natural for WHATEVER reason to judge me because I don't, just as I'm not gonna judge them because they shy away from chemicals.
Once again, thank ALL of you for your feedback on this topic!!! I never expected to see flames coming out of this folder, but I'm glad about it nonetheless. It is wonderful that we can have discussions like this!
Love ya!
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Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Pi Kappa, SP97
#3 of QUINTESSENCE