Article "The Hair Dilemma Conform to Expectations or Identity

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I was doing some research for my school studies and came across and interesting article:

"The Hair Dilemma: Conform to Mainstream Expectations or Emphasize Racial Identity" by Ashleigh Shelby Rosette and Tracy L. Dumas. This article appeared in the Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy (April 2007).

http://www.law.duke.edu/shell/cite.pl?14+Duke+J.+Gender+L.+&+Pol'y+407

Article highlights:

In this Essay we focus on the dilemma that Black women face with regard to their hairstyle choices in the workplace. Our decision to focus primarily on Black women does not assert that one minority group is more important than another group. It does, however, acknowledge that each minority group likely faces its own obstacles and hurdles that are specific to its race, culture, and experiences. We chose to focus on Black women because of the negative stereotypes that are unique to Blacks given the historical context of segregation and inferiority in the United States; because of the preponderance of social science research that contrasts Blacks -- more so than any other racial minority -- to Whites in the context of prejudice, racism, and social inequality; and because of the unique texture and appearance of Black hair which in its natural kinky state is the opposite of straight hair, the Western standard of beauty.17

 

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Maybe I'll bump this thread up every so often with excerpts from the article. Here's one:

For minority women in general, and Black women in particular, hairstyle
choices are subject to pressures to conform to mainstream norms of
attractiveness and professionalism.

Chemically-relaxed hair is currently the most popular style choice for Black women. In a recent study, eighty percent of the Black women surveyed responded that they believed relaxed hair is more easily maintained than natural hair. Indeed, Black women spend approximately $50 million per year on chemical straighteners alone.

Although a direct causal relationship can not be explicitly established, it is likely that the popularity of chemically relaxed hair persists among Black women because of perceptions of the ease of hair maintenance, prevailing norms of beauty, and the popular belief that long straight hair is more attractive than tightly-curled hair.​

 

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