Topic 3, Cultural Appropriation in Beauty.

After writing about the definition and my own opinion on cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, I will spread beauty, fashion, and music into different posts to understand the differences as I felt that they are actually quite similar. In this post, I will write culture appropriation of beauty, and the history of the culture.

Speaking of cultural appropriation of beauty, the first thing and the most popular cases are afro-hair which is cornrows and dreadlocks etc. 

Illustration of Shannon Wright.

In the history of African Civilisation, hairstyle playing a very important role in black people's life. Hairstyles represent a person's social status, tribes or even family background. People could tell a person's identity just by looking at their hair. For Example, warriors from Wolof tribe would braided their hair when they went to war and the woman who mourning would do a more subdued style or just not doing their hair.

"What's more, many believed that hair, given its close location to the skies, was the conduit for spiritual interaction with God."  wrote by Jahangir, a writer from BBC News.

Other than that, a political activist, Marcus Garvey wanted to enhance the status of his fellow black and developed Rastafari theology in Jamaica in the 1930s. The believers twist their hair into dreadlocks and not allowed to cut their hair. Although it is not clear that what influence the hairstyle but there are references in the Old Testament and the Hindu deity Shiva is additionally once in a while portrayed wearing them.

As the movement "roots" developed in the latter 20th century, the religion grew larger and it lead to the origins of  African-Caribbean culture. Its profile expanded after the accomplishment of artist Bob Marley in the 1970s, and dreadlocks turning into a typical sight in British cities. Until now, Afro hair, dreadlocks are still  remain the most particular black hair style among other ethnic groups.

So, it leads back to our cultural appropriation topic. 

“Appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes where it originated, but is deemed as high-fashion, cool or funny when the privileged take it for themselves.” Amandla Stenberg on Hype Hair.com.

Celebrities and Pop stars like Katy Perry and the Jenner sister, they treated black hair like it just fashion style and they never thought of the history behind of the culture. In 2015, Marie Claire features a photo which is Kendall Jenner wearing cornrow and calling it bold and epic. 

Image from Google.

In the same year 2015, Zendaya wore locs to the Oscars and Giuliana Rancic from Fashion Police and E! News said Zendaya smells like patchouli oil and weed. 

Zendaya at Oscars Red Carpet in 2016. Image from Google.

On MTV News, Zendaya said that the reason braids had become fresh and new its because someone else other than black women wearing it. This is where when cultural appropriation comes in. 

Small thoughts.

Now long ago, I was thinking about doing dreadlocks or cornrows as I saw people doing on social media (Instagram). I was not really understand about the history of cornrows and dreads, I just thought that it looks cool. Then I found out that there is a shop in Summit that run by a black women, so I decided to go and ask about the prices and how should I maintain something like that. But when I reached and told her that I want to do dreads, she was not please and keep repeating "No, you can't do dreads. Your hair are white." 

At first, I felt that she was too paranoid as I do see some articles online wrote about something about cultural appropriation, which is the topic I doing now (I read it but I didn't take it serious). But after I started digging into this topic and started to understand the back story of their culture, I felt that I was really impolite as the hairstyles are actually really important for them. But I think I will still going to do dreadlocks someday, but I will be more respectful and try to understand more about their culture.

Reference:

Jahangir, R. (2015) How does Black Hair Reflects Black History? [online] Available on: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-31438273 (Accessed on 13th June 2017)

Daniels, S. (2015) WATCH: ‘Hunger Games’ Amandla Stenberg Talks Cornrows & Cultural Appropriation [online] Available on: http://www.hypehair.com/46876/amandla-stenberg-addresses-black-hairstyles-discussing-cultural-appropriation/ (Accessed on 13th June 2017)

Lakshmin, D. (2016) Zendaya Gets Real About Cultural Appropriation: 'You Can't Tell Someone To Not Upset About It.' [online] Available on: http://www.mtv.com/news/2795685/zendaya-cultural-appropriation-interview/ (Accessed on 12th June 2017)

Image/ Video:

Wright, S. (n.d.) Cultural Appropriation. [online] Available on:http://shannon-wright.com/culturalappropriation/ (Accessed on 14th June 2017)

YouTube (2017) Amandla Stenberg: Don't Cash Crop On My Cornrows [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1KJRRSB_XA (Accessed on 12th June 2017)