IS FORBIDDEN TO STRAIGHT? THE ACCEPTANCE OF NATURAL HAIR AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF BLACK WOMEN

Abstract

I have defended in previous articles the relationship of oppression between racism, curly hair, hair transition and black identity. Understanding the hair transition as the process of changing perception about one's own hair, it was possible to understand that there is a possibility that this process, by allowing women to develop a positive way of perceiving their physical characteristics, directly influences their self-esteem and also brings them closer. these women from other black women, creating a new range of supportive and identifying social relationships. In this context, I believe it is possible an identity resignification through the hair transition and consequent empowerment for the acceptance of curly hair. But would that mean that the black woman who straightens her hair remains trapped in racist oppression? Should an empowered black woman aware of her race necessarily have a black aesthetic? In telling the black woman what her aesthetics should look like in order to gain credibility with other blacks, wouldn't that be a new form of oppression? These are valid questions that I will try to answer in this work.