The Politics of Curly Hair

Black women's hair is political. How amusing that this would be a newsflash to many people, and something they'd never thought about before. It's kind of how I feel when people have grand epiphanies like, "Race is not just a white and black issue!" or "People in places other than Europe have histories too!"

My hair is political too. I know that if I had straight hair, I would be looked at and treated very, very, veryveryvery differently. I read a study once that said Americans tend to associate dark, curly hair with stupidity and a lack of discipline. Gee, I wonder why! Who tends to have dark, curly hair? My hair goes against the dark and straight norm of the model minority (holy shit, that article needs to be fixed up), and it throws off many a subliminally racist motherfucker.

Every good woman of Bollywood has straight hair. She might adapt Shirley temple curls for a song or two, but curly, dark hair is reserved for the vixens, nymphomaniacs, item numbers, and "schizophrenics." Interestingly, Bollywood associates dark, curly hair with western debauchery, while many Americans associate dark, curly hair more specifically with urban debauchery. It's interesting that first-generation South Asians that I meet here -- men and women -- tend to have more positive fascination with my hair, while second-generation men straight up turn the other way and lust for the ultra-typical Bollywood look, if not just an actual white girl. Is it because of the respective debaucheries that curly hair connotates to each of those groups?