From: Capri
I was
born with very coarse, kinky and curly hair. All over the world there are
millions of women, like me, who have similar hair texture. Growing up having
that hair and being African American, the natural hair texture is not
completely accepted in today’s society. This is when I considered the
unrealistic beauty standards of having kinky or curly hair in society and how
we go to extra lengths of making it straight to be acceptable amongst society.
Woman spend a lot of many for the various tools made for us to straighten our
hair. The most popular tool is called a “Flat Iron”. There are various shapes
and sizes when seeking the right flat iron which could result in a big amount
of flat irons you purchase. The flat iron uses various heat temperatures, normally
up to 500 degrees to successfully straighten hair. What many people do not know
is straightening hair causes intense damage to a woman’s hair. This damage has
thus led more companies to create a heat protectant for hair, which can also be
very expensive or not work at all. In “Girl Culture” a girl named Fina who is
13, is seen in a tanning bed. Fina perfectly represents the unrealistic beauty
standard in society by tanning. Similar to Fina there are many women out there
who tan to achieve the beauty standard of being “tan” and having bronze skin.
Just like straightening your hair constantly tanning can also cause damage, like
skin cancer. Yet many women continue to tan and straighten their hair knowing
the risk. There are many women who have lost hair due to constant heat damage.
With the excessive amount of pressure from flat irons woman end up remaining
unable to meet the standards because their hair is no longer long and healthy.
Hair becomes short and choppy in certain places and will never grow until they
cut all the hair off and start “over” to grow new hair strands which could
potentially take up to 2-3 years for a reasonable length (shoulder length)
depending on genetics. In hopes to speed up the process many women use hair
regimens to grow stronger and longer hair like biotin. Biotin is a
multi-vitamin that specifically helps grow hair. Biotin is yet another product
that woman must purchase in hopes of achieving a beauty standard. In
conclusion, I wanted to address the many unrealistic beauty standards that
women are faced with, specifically speaking woman that have course, kinky or
curly hair. And how said woman spend excessive amount of money to achieve the
straight -haired beauty standard.
sources:
greenfeilds, Lauren. “Girl Culture.” GIRL CULTURE - Lauren Greenfield,
v1.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/girlcult/greenfield08.html.
Kenneth, et al. “Finally An Article On How to Really Grow Long Hair.” Curl Centric® | Rewrite the Rules of Natural Hair Care, 30 Nov. 2018, www.curlcentric.com/grow-long-hair/.
2 comments:
From: Charles
In the picture Straight Hair Beauty, the photographer has emphasized the negative impact of beauty scripts by utilizing the line creative technique. The photo uses straight lines very well to separate, highlight and define aspects of her essay. By keeping all the lines of the photo at off kilter angles, the photographer emphasizes the ever changing and nearly arbitrary rules of fashion and beauty. In the photo, the lines often intersect at random angles. This further helps to emphasize the conflict that women face trying to live up to unrealistic standards of beauty. Additionally, the rectangular background picture of the beauty ideal is shown not straight up, but so that the sides continue the conflicting arrangement of lines. The off-kilter nature of the background photo mocks the beauty standard even though women are made to feel they must adhere to the standard anyway. When so much of our identity is connected to personal appearance, we are truly shaped as individuals by the normative beauty scripts that we take in.
The line technique is also used to good effect to separate the beauty items from the rest of the photo. The straight edges of the mirror and the straight line of the flat iron enclose all the beauty products within a box. This hints at the nature of modern beauty scripts being meant to box things in or box other things out. Depending on the viewer’s perspective, the box around the beauty supplies could reference the exclusiveness of the beautiful or it could refer to the boxed in feeling some women get from beauty scripts.
Lastly, for me, the ever-spreading rays of the blanket at the bottom of the photo are particularly eye catching. Again, perspective of the beholder is important. From an inside to outside perspective the spreading array is indicative of the spreading rays of the sun. The beauty products sit at the heart of the center of beauty and shine down the light of beauty for all to see. The beauty norms are made healthy and enviable perhaps. From an outside pessimistic view, the spreading array of lines can symbolize the inevitability of beauty expectation. All roads lead to beauty, it is inescapable. An optimist might see the spreading rays from the outside and see them as the indication of fantasy that beauty standards make us believe. If we can be thin enough, or cool enough, or pretty enough, we can have the dream life. Once again, beauty scripts have found a way to lie to us.
From Carlie
I love the way that you portray beauty in your photo, girls struggle to embrace their natural beauty and instinctively go to beauty enhancer instead. I don’t know if you used a cheerleader for the subject of your photo on purpose, but I thought it was a powerful message to the status of beauty. Cheerleaders are commonly known to be the pretty popular girls that run the school, and in your picture, it shows that the beauty norms take a lot of work. Self-esteem than comes to play because the pressure on the cheerleaders and on peers that want to be cheerleaders is unrealistic and harmful to the body. I strongly agree with your opinion when you talk about the side effects of tanning and ironing your hair. Even when trying to protect yourself against the horrible safe effects by putting certain lotions on before tanning or taking certain pills that help with hair growth can have major side effects as well. Biotin helps hair growth, but has side effects on certain skin types by creating rashes on the skin or can cause extreme cases of acne. Buying a product like biotin can result in the exact opposite outcome you are looking for, which than causes you to spend even more money on products to fix the effects of the first beauty enhancer.
Having the mirror in front of the cheerleader’s picture leads me to believe that the picture is amplifying that beauty comes before personality. Beauty is something that people look for and notice before getting to know someone, which is sadly the case for many situations. If a female doesn’t look like the norms of beauty, such as nice clothes, good posture, and an appropriate amount of make up on than they aren’t taken seriously. One can argue if someone is dressed the way beauty is proceed then people judge their intelligence, which has happened to me before. In some cases, it is a loose loose for woman when it comes to beauty standards.
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