Zahra Gordon

The Debate Continues! (Found Lost Post)

, , , , , ,
zeespeakstt Avatar
zeespeakstt
One of the first pictures that came up after a Google search of the word “feminist” Apparently, this is what they look like. You think her hair is natural?




This was the follow up post to one written about being labeled a feminist earlier this year. Just as a disclaimer I would like to say that at this particular junction in my life I do not identify as a feminist if there is any confusion.


 “While I am clearly opposed to the way history plays out in our community, I am not a feminist. I am a revolutionary.” Safiya Bukhari, The War Before

My last post dealt with a gender debate and after posting I remembered something else seemingly minuscule but very telling. At my former job we sold buttons with all sorts of  “progressive” messages and quotes on them; they were placed right by the cash-register. One day a couple came in and was looking around eventually stopping at the counter and buttons. The boyfriend said he wanted to find one for the girlfriend. We look at few different buttons, then one pops up that reads: Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.
“So what about this one?” I ask.
“Naw. She ain’t no feminist. Look at her hair, its not natural.”
I just kept up the small talk. 
To me this was a stereotype and my initial reaction is to think that this is someone who minimizes feminism to aesthetic qualities, but I also wonder how unfounded a stereotype this statement was. In my experience, it  takes a certain level of consciousness to wear natural hair and to be comfortable in it (Of course like Andre 3000 said, “Just cause you got dreads don’t mean you down for the cause”)

Having natural hair does not make you a feminist but when black people/black women maintain their natural hair it becomes political and feminism is political. For instance, check out this article written by Audre Lorde “Is Your Hair Still Political?” where she discusses being turned away by the British Virgin Islands Immigration. She was refused entry because she had dreadlocks and according to a law referred to as the “Rasta Ban” was not allowed to enter the country. The law was repealed in 2003 but the mentality that allowed for the creation of such a law is mind-boggling.

The quote above is from Safiya Bukhari’s book The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison & Fighting for Those Left Behind. Besides the narrative of her life of dedicated activism being extremely inspiring, this quote really stood out to me. Being a revolutionary or a feminist entails much more than a change in hairstyle, it is the mentality that changes.  

Leave a comment