Project topics and materials
Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »
The politics of black hair in South Africa
Hair plays a fundamental role in terms of a woman‟s body image. As stated above, in communities across the globe, it has social, cultural, aesthetic, religious and psychological significance. As a result, hair is a valued and politicised asset that serves as a signifier of class, gender, ethnicity, conformity/non-conformity, authority, and power (Sherrow 2006). African hair holds political power because it shapes black people‟s consciousness about broader social, cultural, religious, and economic issues.
The politics of hair in South Africa has some similarities and differences with that of other countries on the continent and beyond. However, although South Africa has a shared colonial history with other countries in Africa such as Zimbabwe and Ghana, Zimbabweans and Ghanaians were not subjected to the same inhumane practices that black South Africans suffered. The politics of black hair in South Africa is largely rooted in the segregation laws introduced during colonisation and apartheid. During colonial and apartheid eras, African hair and hairstyles were disparaged (Barnard 2000:351) and presented as bad, inferior and uncivilised, while the white ideal of long straight hair4 was represented as superior. Black African women were discriminated against because of the colour of their skin and texture of their hair. The racial hierarchy created by the Population Registration Act of 1950 enabled certain groups of people to “pass” from a lower category to a higher one. For example, black people with straight hair and lighter skin tone were allowed to “pass” to the Coloured category while Coloureds with lighter skin tone “passed” to the White category. Since hair prevented black African women from obtaining upward social mobility they had to come up with new ways to style their hair. To gain social acceptance and move up the social ladder, some black African women felt compelled to copy hairstyles and skin tones that resembled the Westerncentric ideal.5 These women resorted to chemically altering their hair, wearing wigs, and applying skin lightening products on their faces to change their skin tone. By engaging in these practices, they assumed new identities that were perceived to be closer to white ideals. It is important to note that others resisted, based on their own convictions and teachings of movements that promoted black pride, such as the Black Consciousness Movement (see 2.4).
The trend of hair straightening and skin lightening still persists in the post-apartheid era, more than two decades after the inception of democratic rule. There is a predicament of social acceptability where black African women contend with embracing their natural hair, or performing the white ideals that were imposed through colonisation and are perpetuated by hegemonic global fashion and beauty trends and celebrity culture, which are produced and circulated through advertising, international mass media and online platforms (see 3.5).
It seems that black African women are still under pressure to conform to the white ideal. Practices that disparage the black body, particularly hair, still persist as is evident in an incident at Pretoria Girls High School in August 2016 where black female pupils were instructed to straighten their “untidy” natural hair or risk being barred from writing examinations.6 One of the white teachers allegedly described a black girl‟s hair as a bird‟s nest. Describing African hair and styles as untidy raises a lot of questions, for instance, what constitutes „neat‟ hair and who defines „neat‟ hair? Tate (2017:94) observes that “black natural hair is vulnerable to political, aesthetic, psychic, social and affective attack by the ideology, politics and practice of the white/whitened state as it operates through school policies”. Banning and calling Afrocentric hairstyles such as dreadlocks and afro „untidy‟ and forcefully imposing Westerncentric standards of ideal beauty strips black people of their cultural identity. This may have a profound effect such as feeling humiliated, low self-esteem, and self-hatred, on the girls and society at large because hair, which is considered a symbol of pride in the black communities, continues to be disparaged.
1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background and context to the study
1.2 The research problem
1.3 Justification for choosing True Love magazine
1.4 Literature review
1.5 The theoretical framework
1.6 The research methodology
1.7 Feasibility of study and ethical implications
1.8 Outline of chapters
2 THE BLACK BODY AND BLACK HAIR POLITICS
2.1 Blackness in the black and white imagination
2.2 Overview of South Africa
2.3 Dehumanisation of black people .
2.4 The counter-hegemonic movements .
2.5 The dawn of a new era .
CONCLUSION.
3 SIGNIFICANCE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY OF BLACK HAIR
3.1 The morphological structure of hair
3.2 The characteristics of African hair
3.3 Cultural and social significance of African hair
3.4 The cultural norms, beliefs and taboos associated with African hair
3.5 Globalisation and the commodification of hair
3.6 The hair and beauty industry in South Africa .
CONCLUSION
4 MAGAZINE CULTURE AND REPRESENTATION
4.1 What is a magazine
4.2 Cultural studies
4.3 Cultural studies and the role of magazines in society
CONCLUSION
5 APPLICATION TO TRUE LOVE: QUANTITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS
5.1 Quantitative content analysis .
CONCLUSION
6 APPLICATION TO TRUE LOVE: VISUAL SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF THE ADVERTISEMENTS
7 APPLICATION TO TRUE LOVE: VISUAL SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF THE COVERS
8 FINDINGS FROM PRE-GROUP QUESTIONNAIRE AND FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWS
9 CONCLUSION
SOURCES CONSULTED.
ADDENDA.
