Daily Doses (Dramatic Legends): The Hairpiece (Theme of Self-Identity)

“Miss honey please, she don’t need no Barbie doll dipped in chocolate telling her what to do. What you need is a head of hair that is coming from a for real place…” - The Hairpiece, from The Colored Museum. To me, this excerpt was an exceptionally profound piece because of its social and psychological implications. In fact, it was from a piece of literature that explored many social and psychological issues from the African American prospective through the use of satire. This particular piece exposes a very fascinating aspect in African American culture which chronicles the obsession women have with their hair. Through a seemingly simple skit, the message runs deep. For this exhibit’s dissection, I chose the dramatic element of theme, which I found to be self-identity (though not quite obvious).

                                                                                                                          

The Hairpiece highlights two wigs which represent two aspects of perceived beauty. The woman torn between the wigs is a black woman who is bald from over processing and ruining her natural hair, as revealed by Lawanda’s line “She done fried, dyed, de-chemicalized…” The wig named Janine is afro-textured, kinky and thick, while Lawanda is long and straight European type hair. Janine uses a series of double entendre to describe herself as having the attitude of resistance with a “healthy head of kinks” and not about to submit or be “hot-pressed into surrender.” Lawanda interesting denounces her by saying “the last time attitude worked on anybody was 1968…” the exact year the Civil Rights Act was passed due to the hard campaign for equal rights. Later Lawanda tells Janine that she could never compete with her, calling her common and trash. Janine retaliates by calling Lawanda “synthetic” or fake, bringing on the question of what is considered real and non-real aspects of beauty.  Ironically during the time leading up to the Civil Rights Act being passed, more African Americans began to accept their own racial identity and renewed their pride by embracing afro-centric ideas and natural beauty. To demonstrate this, many people began wearing Afros, or picked out hair, and African inspired patterns and garb to show their non-conformity to the white standard of beauty. But after this era of change, things started to regress back to where they were initially… I strongly believe that through this piece, George C. Wolfe was opening up an opportunity for his views to truly question themselves about the subject of self-identity.

By bringing up the past, George C. Wolfe opened up an almost forgotten history.   The theme of hair has been affecting African American/Black culture since our race’s freedom and gradual entrance into American society. And since those times, hair type and texture (along with skin tone) has been at the heart of debate when it came to defining beauty and class. Interestingly, it was even a means to cause division and separation amongst our own race. Why was this the case? For centuries, blackness or anything that could be equated to the black race, such as thick kinky, coily, and tightly curled hair, dark skin, big or full lips, bigger or broader noses, and curvy body types where shunned by whites and even some blacks because they were unique and different aspects human appearance, and because of these differences, considered ugly or inferior by the dominating race. People who had lighter skin and 'straighter' hair textures were socially embraced, and had a chance at upward mobility.  Since that time up until now, the dominating media’s image of female beauty is of a light skinned woman with long, straight hair. Even in what is considered “black entertainment” such as on music videos and magazines like Ebony, the majority of the woman, if not all, have long, straight hair, usually by means of relaxing and weaving. It is rare that we ever get to see a black woman portrayed in the media with her natural afro textured hair or with darker toned skin than the common brown. In fact, people with darker skin and natural hair styles or with braids or twists her portrayed in the media as poor or ignorant. From any early age this idea of beauty is instilled into young girls by their mothers and grandmothers, who have been indoctrinated by the media’s view of beauty.