My Hair.
I wanted to write about this somewhere. 140 characters is not enough and Facebook is already over-spewing with unorganized and easily overlooked opinions.
When I started releasing videos, my hair was received by many others as “natural” meaning not pressed out or straightened. There was a community of women that supported me and appreciated me due to this in accordance with my comedy.
When I posted a photo of myself with my hair straightened, I read posts from girls that said things like, “why did she straighten her hair?” “Why is she doing that, she doesn’t think she is beautiful?” “She’s conforming.”
Here’s the sitch. I straightened my hair because I wanted to. I braid it because I want to. I wear it out in curls because I want to. Sometimes it’s easier to have it braided or straightened in my very hectic life and sometimes it’s easier to have as is. I focus on ease and peace of mind.
Also, I think I’m beautiful bald, and the last time I conformed I fell off of my dinosaur.
True conformation is blindly latching to fads and movements for security instead of truly having opinions of your own.
I think, that in society, to rise one school of thought up, people often feel the need to push the others down. I see it with many movements. Feminism ( some will degrade men) , anti-racism (degrading other races) , politics (degrading other parties). Right now, I’m experiencing it as a woman who chose to change my hairstyle because i like to do it, and it makes me feel happy. I was called “insecure, conformer, and unreal.” In reality, I’m just feeling cute out here. It’s as simple as changing nail colors for me.
It’s so minuscule compared to the many other things plaguing this planet. People are starving, our bees are dying and our climate is changing. However, I believe many of these major issues could be examined even if we stop focusing so much on the small things that really don’t matter as much- such as hair. After all, some people lose it, never grow it or don’t have it at all.
I love that there was a movement in this country motivating women to love their natural selves. However, let’s not batter those who choose to do what it is they like with themselves because they can and it makes them feel good.
On a larger scale, when it comes to movements- it’d be wonderful to see people glorify what makes them beautiful without hurting others with plausible views different from their own.
