Viola Davis, an award winning black actress, recently starred in the movie The Help. At the 2012 Oscars, Viola appeared on the Red Carpet glowing and debuting her natural hair. The media, of course, made this a into a huge story. When asked what made her decide to wear her natural hair to the Oscars, she stated that h
er husband encouraged her to do so.
I believe that Viola Davis was radiant and confident that night. She was absolutely beautiful. Many black women and young girls appreciated seeing natural hair on the red carpet. Wendy Williams, radio talk show host turned television host, did not feel the same way. On her self titled talk show, Wendy Williams insinuated that the Davis’ TWA (teeny weeny afro) made her look mannish, like the history teacher in the 70’s sitcom “Room 222”. At another time, Williams stated that Davis’ hair was just not professional. Many black women were appalled at her statements. They felt that Williams was attacking black women. As you can see in the picture on the left, Davis display of natural beauty was inspirational to black women and girls; and, Williams blatantly shot it down on national television to an audience who probably does not understand natural black hair to begin with.
Black hair has so much politics attached to it. In the past, black women have felt restricted by white beauty standards of straight or wavy hair that is often unnatural to them. I, like many others, am appalled that a black woman would scorn another black woman for displaying her natural beauty. “Natural” hair is our hair. Kinky, curly, wavy, coarse, whatever, it is our hair. I am encouraged by the fact that so many black women have decided to transgress white beauty standards and free themselves from chemical relaxers, letting their own unique beauty shine. Viola Davis certainly took a stand at the Oscars and became even more of an inspiration to black women.
Viola Davis proved that black beauty is the opposite of white expectattion. That which the lesser temperamentally civilized deem as pulchritude, the black replicas of divinity show aesthetic antithesis towards. She looked like royalty should in the presence of a black god, since the statue is itself an effigy of ethnic diety.
By Viola Davis stepping out of the box will show other black women that thye can do the same. we as a society need to forget what other people say and do and do what makes us feel comfortable. Wendy Williams can take her comment and go somewhere with it because she is as fake as they come, nothing on her body is real. if you look at the demographics on her show majority of them are white so talking to them about her is not gonna get anywhere because none of them honestly know what she is talking about, because they dont understand the concept of black hair anyway. we must ingnore ingnorace and focus on the people that do things for them and not others.
It is also noteworthy that the question needed to be asked!
Speaking as a white woman who is always, always jealous of the beauty of black hair I think it’s ridiculous the question needed to be asked. Perhaps the questions should be translated into what it was really meant to say:
Why did you refuse to conform to the “white female beauty standard” and instead choose to be proud of your natural appearance?
I think Viola Davis looks magnificent, in fact, looking at the picture of her I think her hair enhances her appearance rather than detracts from it, as Wendy Williams seems to think.
I also fail to comprehend why Williams did not view Davis’ hair as professional. According to Williams, is the only version of professional hair straight, perfectly glossy, and coiffed until there’s no tomorrow? Who defines “professional” and when does that definition become inapplicable to a majority of a female population?
Do women who choose to cover their hair for religious reasons also lack professionalism?
I agree, Davis looks magnificent and her statement of black female beauty should be embraced rather than rebuffed.
A friend of mine has incredibly kinky curly hair that will never stay straight no matter how often she irons it, while my hair refuses to hold any sort of curl no matter how hard I try.
These standards of impossible achievement towards hair can be changed and I applaud Davis for standing up against absurd standards and showing pride in her natural self.
Natural black hair is under much controversy when a child is born. I feel as if even within families in African American communities’ parents and relatives tend to place emphasis on what they are going to do with their children’s hair such as braid, dread, perm, or etc. No wonder this is a debate on what African American girls should do with their hair because there is so much discourse surrounding the issue. In a perfect world African Americans would do with their hair as they please but social constraints limit this idealist notion.
I went natural about two years ago. My hair was getting on my nerves all the perming and straightening cause my hair to break and it never really grew. So I cut it and went natural. My hair grew more and was healthy. I was forced to take care of my hair. Perming for me left me with the appearance that my hair was healthy when it is not. Being Nigerian American I understand the push to perm hair at a younger age. To be quite frank natural hair is a hassle and hurts to be combed. So perming it makes it easier to braid and do anything to it. However with natural hair there are different things to do to it to make it more ‘manageable’ or more ‘appealing’. Its texturized or blown out or something it to make it look less ‘African’ or ethnic or othered. So I definatley applaud her for where her hair natural and I think she looks beautiful. But if her hair were curlier or curse or more natural looking I don’t know if there would be the same support. There would probably be more negative statements.
The controversy incited by Wendy Williams links to, in my opinion, both racist as well as sexist ideologies that are enforced upon people. Black beauty is often, unfortunately, devalued and black people are often encouraged to fit the norm purported by the white populace (whether or not only white people are enforcing this). Policing black hair is undoubtedly an example of this; natural hair is discouraged because people, paradoxically, do not find it to be normal (i.e. the “mannish” comment mentioned in the original post). At the same time, there is an emphasis on fitting the precise stereotype of femininity: consistently attempting to “fix” the body of oneself to fit societal norms, and not appearing “mannish” (mentioned earlier in the original post as well as this comment).
I definitely agree that the disdain for Black natural hair is both racist and sexist. I know many Black women who refuse to cut out their relaxer because they are afraid to look masculine. It’s so sad that these ideologies have been accepted for generations, but I am glad that more and more Black celebrities are making natural hair popular in the media.
One of my best friends (her mom is black and dad is white) started wearing her hair natural only after I (a white girl) pointed out that her hair was growing out from a perm in deep waves that would turn into ringlets if they were long enough. This was in high school, almost 15 years ago, and she has never permed it again. Now, after how happy she’s been with natural hair even her mother has gone natural. They have very different hair textures and that’s why her mom always permed it, that was the only way she knew how to deal with black women’s hair. My friend is still struggling with finding a stylist who can deal with cutting her ringlets, but I know she’s been happier without perming.
The comment about natural hair not being professional blows my mind, I remember my favorite teacher in elementary school had a little shaped, angled afro (it was the 80s!) and I totally thought it was the coolest hair style! It’s really unfortunate Wendy Williams made those comments.