“IT’S THE FEELINGS I WEAR”: BLACK WOMEN, NATURAL HAIR, AND NEW MEDIA (RE)NEGOTIATIONS OF BEAUTY By Kristin Denise Rowe A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of African American and African Studies—Doctor of Philosophy 2019 ABSTRACT “IT’S THE FEELINGS I WEAR”: BLACK WOMEN, NATURAL HAIR, AND NEW MEDIA (RE)NEGOTIATIONS OF BEAUTY By Kristin Denise Rowe At the intersection of social media, a trend in organic products, and an interest in do-it-yourself culture, the late 2000s opened a space for many Black American women to stop chemically straightening their hair via “relaxers” and begin to wear their hair natural—resulting in an Internet-based cultural phenomenon known as the “natural hair movement.” Within this context, conversations around beauty standards, hair politics, and Black women’s embodiment have flourished within the public sphere, largely through YouTube, social media, and websites. My project maps these conversations, by exploring contemporary expressions of Black women’s natural hair within cultural production. Using textual and content analysis, I investigate various sites of inquiry: natural hair product advertisements and internet representations, as well as the ways hair texture is evoked in recent song lyrics, filmic scenes, and non- fiction prose by Black women. Each of these “hair moments” offers a complex articulation of the ways Black women experience, share, and negotiate the socio-historically fraught terrain that is racialized body politics and “beauty” as a construct. My project is guided by the following research question: How are Black women utilizing the context of the natural hair movement to (re)define, (re)shape, and (de/re)construct meanings of beauty and Black womanhood? Using an embodied Black feminist framework, I argue that at the intersection of both (re)presentations of natural hair and uses of social/ new media, we find new possibilities, intimacies, (re)negotiations, and (re)articulations of both Black women’s embodiment and the potentiality of “beauty” as a construct. Ultimately, the project uses hair as a way to underscore the agency within Black women’s uses and understandings of their bodies, in a cultural landscape that constantly tries to tell them who and what they are. Copyright by KRISTIN DENISE ROWE 2019 This dissertation is dedicated to all of the Black women, girls, and femmes in my family, in my communities, and in the world who have inspired me to do this work. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To say “thank you” seems woefully inadequate to express my gratitude for those who have impacted and allowed for this dissertation to exist. This dissertation would not be possible without the support of my committee members: Dr. Terrion Williamson, Dr. Denise Troutman, Dr. Pero Dagbovie, and Dr. Kristie Dotson. I am so grateful to each of you for your formal and informal mentorship. With your guidance and contributions, I was able to refine some nebulous, broad ideas about Black women, beauty, and body politics into the dissertation I have today. I would like to thank especially my dissertation co-chairs Dr. Terrion Williamson and Dr. Denise Troutman. You both were generous and patient enough to always trust my vision, push me just the right amount, and share your own breadth of knowledge. Thank you for nurturing me as a student and caring about me as a person. In you, I see models for the kind of scholar I hope to be, and the kind of advising I hope to provide my future students. I am also so thankful to other mentors who have been a part of my overall intellectual and professional development throughout this project, including: Dr. April Baker-Bell, Dr. Geneva Smitherman, Dr. Yomaira Figueroa, Dr. Rita Kiki Edozie, Dr. Tama Hamilton-Wray, Dr. Zarena Aslami, Dr. Trixie Smith, Dr. Glenn Chambers, Dr. Leonora Paula, Dr. LaShawn Harris, and Dr. Tamara Butler. Finally, I must show my gratitude for the Black feminist thinkers who greatly inspired this project such as Michele Wallace, Joan Morgan, Hortense Spillers, Patricia Hill Collins, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper, Robin Boylorn, and many more. Their work has revived me more times than I can count, and I am so thankful to build on the foundation that so many Black women and femmes before me have created and cultivated. v I also must thank my supportive family and friends. I am so blessed to have parents who always encouraged my curiosity, supported my passion, and encouraged me to follow my dream. Thank you for everything, Mom and Dad. Thank you to my extended family and grandparents—I would not have made it through this process without knowing I had you to catch me if I fall. Thank you to my brother Clay Rowe, and to my best friend Rachel Jamison. Thank you for always believing in me; I love you both so much. Thank you also to my extended family who lives in Michigan— the Rogers, the Byers, and the Morrows. In the throes of graduate school, you were always an hour away with a place to stay, a homecooked meal, and an encouraging word. Thank you also to some of my most treasured friends: Ashley Rowe, Katrina Gearhart, Kylie Hall, Claire Hatkevich, and James W. Church. Your encouragement and laughs in the group chat have given me life in more ways than one. I also want to thank the people I met at Michigan State who have encouraged me throughout my professional life, including my sister in graduate school Janelle Marlena Edwards, and my invaluable and brilliant friends AJ Rice, Tiffany D. Caesar, Jasmin Howard, Olaocha Nwabara, Shingi Mavima, Clarence George III, Allison Cox, Ronisha Browdy, and Joyce-Zoe Farley (to name a few). Thank you each for tending to my work as a fellow scholar and tending to my spirit as a friend. Thank you also to the amazing undergraduate students I encountered at Michigan State, specifically those in the Curlfriends student organization, those who accompanied me to South Africa in Summer 2015, those in Dr. Terrion Williamson’s Spring 2016 AAAS 390 course, and those in my Spring 2019 ENG 350: Readings in African American Literature course. I will always treasure your brilliance, your passion, and your faith in me. vi I must also thank my family at the University of Delaware, who planted the first seeds for this project and for my career as a professor. Thank you to Dr. Carol Henderson, Dr. Yasser Payne, Dr. Tim Spaulding, and Dr. Emily Davis for providing the mentorship, research opportunities, amazing courses, and listening ears for me to bounce ideas off of. Thank you to the Undergraduate Research Program at UD for financially supporting my first ever extended research projects. Many thanks also to James W. Church, Sarah Patterson, and Brooklynn Hitchens for providing my first student community of folks who were also deeply invested in researching Black art, narratives, and communities. I must also recognize the various funding sources that enabled me to complete my work. Michigan State University’s generous funding allowed me to work for the past six years. Thank you also to the Harriet Pipes McAdoo Award, the Center for Gender in Global Context, the Dissertation Completion Fellowship by the Graduate School, the Residential College of Arts and Humanities Graduate Fellows Program, and the Office of Study Abroad Academic Excellence Award. Thank you also to the curators of the ever evolving “Soul Lounge” and “Anti Pop” playlists on Spotify streaming service for often providing me the soundtrack to writing this dissertation. Finally, I am also so thankful to all of the Black women whose work is featured in this research—the artists, creatives, musicians, producers, actresses, writers, bloggers, vloggers, and more. Thank you for sharing your work, your words, your voices, your narratives, and your experiences with the rest of us. I hope I have done them justice here. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………ix INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………...1 CHAPTER ONE - BEAUTY AND HISTORICIZING THE NATURAL HAIR MOVEMENT 27 CHAPTER TWO – “TRANSFORM YOUR HAIR!”: MAPPING “BEAUTY” WITHIN THE INTERNET-BASED NATURAL HAIR MOVEMENT………………………………………...82 CHAPTER THREE – “NOTHING ELSE MATTERED AFTER THAT WIG CAME OFF”: BLACK WOMEN, UNSTYLED HAIR, AND SCENES OF INTERIORITY………………...128 CHAPTER FOUR – BEYOND “GOOD HAIR”: NEW RE-FRAMINGS OF A HAIR HIERARCHY…………………………………………………………………………………..164 CHAPTER FIVE – ON “THE BIG CHOP” NARRATIVES AND BLACK FEMINIST STORYTELLING………………………………………………………………………………206 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………227 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………………....235 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 - An illustrated example of a hair typing chart ............................................................... 68 Figure 2 - An Internet meme poking fun at hair texture envy ...................................................... 69 Figure 3 – An illustration of the concept of “Shrinkage” ............................................................. 97 Figure 4 - A “length check” by Whitney White on YouTube .................................................... 103 Figure 5 - Photographic Hair Typing Chart via Nenonatural.com ............................................. 105 Figure 6 - Visuals from the now removed #EverybodyGetsLove Shea Moisture ad ................. 111 Figure 7 - Annalise Keating looks at her reflection after she takes off her wig ......................... 138 Figure 8 - Noni cuts out her hair extensions and reveals her un-styled curly hair to Kaz .......... 146 Figure 9 - Mary Jane