Healthy, Beautiful Hair: Cultivating the Self in a Women's Prison Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Labotka, Lori Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 26/09/2021 00:55:45 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/332826 HEALTHY, BEAUTIFUL HAIR: CULTIVATING THE SELF IN A WOMEN’S PRISON by Lori Labotka __________________________ Copyright © Lori Labotka 2014 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF ANTHROPOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2014 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Lori Labotka, titled Healthy, Beautiful Hair: Cultivating the Self in a Women’s Prison, and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 5/16/14 Norma Mendoza-Denton _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 5/16/14 Jennifer Roth-Gordon _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 5/16/14 Brackette F. Williams Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: 5/16/14 Dissertation Director: Norma Mendoza-Denton 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Lori Labotka 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to all of the people who supported and encouraged me throughout graduate school and through the writing of this dissertation. I would especially like to thank all of my research participants and other individuals I encountered during my fieldwork in Arizona. I truly appreciate all of your time, energy, and willingness to share some of your life with me. Your generosity and kindness made this dissertation possible. Thank you, also, to those that did not participate but tolerated my presence in the jail and on the prison yard. My dissertation committee was invaluable to this project and my graduate career in general. Dr. Norma Mendoza-Denton, thank you for guiding me through my Master’s and my PhD. You are an amazing advisor and mentor, and I would not be where I am today without you. Thank you for pushing me to find a research focus, and offering your theoretical insights on gender, language, and beauty. Dr. Brackette F. Williams, thank you for your theoretical and practical guidance on studying the U.S. prison system. Your own work inspired me to think my project was possible, and you helped every step of the way—from applying anthropology to prisons, to getting into a field site, to navigating the field context, to writing the dissertation. Thank you especially for taking my confused and frantic calls from the field! Dr. Jennifer Roth- Gordon, thank you for your continued inspiration and feedback. Your insights on race and the body inspired much of my theoretical approach, and you never failed to offer critical feedback through the many stages of this project. I would also like to give a special thank you to Dr. Jane Hill and Dr. Ana Alonso, you both were critical to my formation as a scholar and my work will always be indebted to you. I was lucky enough to be the member of two graduate cohorts, a true blessing for my academic development. Thank you, you all are amazing, inspiring, and intellectually stimulating. I am blessed to have worked with all of you, and appreciate the supportive and encouraging atmosphere of the department. Thank you, also, to my two fabulous writing groups, for reading multiple drafts of this dissertation and providing critical feedback, as well as much needed support. Thank you Erin Durban, Priscilla Magrath, Mari Galup, Dana Osborne, Ufuk Coşkun, Joon-Beom Chu, and Kim Kelly. You all are the best! I would also like to extend a special thanks to Lauran Hayes, Sarah Raskin, and Megan Sheehan. In addition, I would like to thank all of the entities and individuals that made this research possible. The University of Arizona School of Anthropology and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute both provided funding that was essential to conducting this research and writing up this dissertation. Read Between the Bars introduced me to prison research and helped foster connections with individuals that provided entry into the field. Thank you to the county jail librarian that granted access to my first field site. And thank you to the Arizona Department of Corrections for approving my project and allowing research in your facility. The warden, deputy warden, and officers on the yard on which I conducted research were critical to the project, thank you for making it possible and helping it run smoothly. Finally, thank you to all of my friends and family. Your support, encouragement, and patience have been amazing. Special thanks to my dad, Dr. Richard Labotka, my mom, Sandra Latimer, and my brother, Mat Labotka. And a final big thank you to Kelly Carr and Michael Giansiracusa, because you two are amazing and truly supported me through this project and the long process of graduate school. 5 DEDICATION To all of the women incarcerated in the state of Arizona that shared their stories with me and made this project possible. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………. 9 LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………………. 10 LIST OF EXCERPTS…………………………………………………………………………… 11 TRANSCRIPT CONVENTIONS……………………………..………………………………… 12 ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………... 13 CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………… 15 “My Hair Look Nice”?....................................................................................................... 15 Anthropology of Modern Punishment…………………………………………………... 19 The Extraordinary Prison………………………………………………………………... 25 Theoretical Background…………………………………………………………………. 28 Punishment and Humiliation……………………………………………………..30 Hair Care………………………………………………………………………… 33 Doing Being Ordinary……………………………………………………………35 Outline of Chapters……………………………………………………………………… 37 CHAPTER 2 – ENTERING THE FIELD: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION IN PRISON…... 43 A Culture of Surveillance………………………………………………………………...43 ASPC Summerville……………………………………………………………………… 47 Ethnographic Context…………………………………………………………… 50 Research Population……………………………………………………………... 55 Entering the Field………………………………………………………………... 58 Researching Beauty……………………………………………………………………... 64 Participant Observation in Prison……………………………………………………...... 75 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………. 84 CHAPTER 3 – CARNIVAL……………………………………………………………………. 86 7 Bodily Transformation…………………………………………………………………... 86 Prison as Carnival……………………………………………………………………….. 88 Tiny Toothbrushes: Hygienic Regulation……………………………………………….. 97 “I take care of my hair!”: Hair Care Restrictions……………………………………… 101 Hare Care Regulations…………………………………………………………………. 113 The Grotesque………………………………………………………………………….. 119 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………... 126 CHAPTER 4 – VOICING THE BEAUTY EXPERT: PRISON STYLISTS AS MEDIUMS OF FEMININITY………………………………………………………………………………….. 128 Healthy, Beautiful Hair………………………………………………………………… 128 Suspicious Styling……………………………………………………………………… 130 Cosmetologist Speak…………………………………………………………………… 140 Discourses of Beauty…………………………………………………………………... 147 Multimodal Voicing……………………………………………………………………. 159 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………... 169 CHAPTER 5 – “I HAVE TO READ IT OUT LOUD”: NEGOTIATING AUTHORITY IN PRISON DISCIPLINE………………………………………………………………………… 171 Animating Authority…………………………………………………………………… 171 Everyday Discipline……………………………………………………………………. 174 Informal Discipline…………………………………………………………………….. 179 Formal Discipline………………………………………………………………………. 184 Drawing a Courtroom………………………………………………………….. 188 The “I” of the State…………………………………………………………….. 193 Silence………………………………………………………………………….. 198 Tucked in Shirts………………………………………………………………………... 202 8 Face-Covering………………………………………………………………………….. 211 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………... 223 CHAPTER 6 – CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………….. 225 Undoing Being Ordinary………………………………………………………………. 225 Mental Health in Prison………………………………………………………………... 229 Broken Clippers………………………………………………………………………... 236 Flipping the Script………………………………………………………………………240 Anthropology of Confinement…………………………………………………………. 245 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………… 249 9 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1. Women’s Maximum-Security Pod………………………………………………….