JEZEBEL AND BLACK WOMEN’S HAIR

A commentor left a link to this site, “Jezebel” on a previous post. The website is called,  “Jezebel:  Celebrity, Sex, Fashion. Without Airbrushing”.  The blog owner has put up a reminder post for black women to send in “their best and worst hairstyles on our black female readers, whether from childhood or adulthood.” (The site requires that you register to log-in to leave a comment.)

The original post, entitled,  “Past Fashion:  I’ll Show You Mine,  If You Show Me Yours” was a call given to black women to give photos of themselves of past hairdos. Here is an excerpt:

“February is just two days away, and the 1st day of the 2nd month is not only the start of Black History Month but New York Fashion Week. (Think they’ll have more models of color on the runways? Unlikely!) Anyway, we can think of no better way to simultaneously celebrate the blessed events and introduce a new feature than by combining the two in the form of what we’re calling “Past Fashion”. The idea behind the feature is to present a monthly gallery of everything from your most over-the-top dance recital outfits to your most adorable, official grade-school photographs. But before you start sending in Polaroids of that time in the 8th grade when you wore white pancake makeup, heed our call for our inaugural “issue” of Past Fashion, for which we’ll focus on the best (and worst!) of black (female) hairstyles…”political” and otherwise.

Got a particularly fuzzy ‘fro from 1974 you want to share? Send it in. A crooked set of cornrows courtesy of your frazzled, multitasking mom? We want those too. Oh, and ladies: Jheri curls? Please???? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. (Women of all ethnicities are encouraged to send in pictures of any and all Bo Derek-inspired cornrows they got during that cruise to the Caribbean in the fourth grade.) Send your submissions by February 15 to photos@jezebel.com with the phrase “Past Fashion: Black Hairstyles” in the headline, and be sure to include the date and location that the photo was taken (photos can be from any era).”

(Link: http://jezebel.com/350426/past-fashion-ill-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours )

Here is an excerpt of the “Reminder”:

“Okay, people: just 5 days left until we have to close out the submissions for the inaugural edition of our new feature “Past Fashion“! What we’re looking for this month: The best and worst hairstyles on our black female readers, whether from childhood or adulthood. (That’s one of our readers’ submissions, at left. Love. It!) Don’t have anything to offer? Send this notice onto someone who might…or does. We’ll be putting up the post at the end of the month, as well as announcing the theme for the March edition of the feature. Those who desire to remain “anonymous” (i.e. have their facial features blurred out) are welcome to say so. Send submissions to photos@jezebel.com with the title “Past Fashion” in the subject header.”

(Link:  http://jezebel.com/354713/reminders )

I won’t bother with responding to the site. That the blog owner has named the blog Jezebel (of the Old Testament, whose Hebrew name translates to:  “not exalted”) and that she has asked for black women to send in photos of their hair is demeaning enough. That many of the commentors see nothing degrading or disrespectful in this is even more sadder. (Only ONE commentor had a problem with this vulgar display of racist denigration, called the blog owner out on it, and that poster was attacked by the mob of posters who have no problem with disparaging the hair of black women.) Black women have had our beauty, and especially our gravity-defying hair, attacked and callously denigrated for 400 years. Black women’s beautiful hair has never been given the respect for its uniqueness that it so rightfully deserves. Black women have had to put up with monstrous comments against our hair from everyone too blind and hateful to see the innate beauty in our tightly coiled hair texture.  Therefore, black women should be the last group of people who would join in on mocking our own hair just to get a laugh from those same tormentors—-oppressors who mock us daily in their contempt of our features, and in this case, our hair. Black women should not think so little of themselves that they will gladly deprecate themselves in the eyes of those who have no respect for anything—or anyone—black—especially when that black person is a black woman—the most beat-upon and vilified group of people in America.

But, hey, it’s okay—no, it’s fun to disparage black women. Who cares about them? Who really has their back, other than the black women who speak up for and defend black women? Very, very few humans in this country care much for black women. Afterall, black women have been, and still are, everyone’s Everlast bag when it comes to needing a group to dump on, beat-slap-and-punch into,  and for everyone to pour out all their hostilities on as if black women are some sort of  catharsis for everyone’s sick sadistic neurosis. So, who better to slander than the black woman, so, why not attack her hair? Not many people will come to her rescue anyway. So, why care about her? Why care about her feelings?

Everyone remembers Jezebel?

She was an apostate. A woman who convinced her husband Ahab and her people to turn away from the God of the Israelites and towards the worship of the Phoenician god, Baal. She brought so many abominations into the land that  she meets with a horrible end. The prophet Elijah commands her people to rise up against her, whereby they comply, throwing her out of a window to her death, commonly known as defenestration, leaving her in the street to be eaten by dogs; only Jezebel’s skull, feet, and hands remained. Her ignominious end thus fulfilling Elijah’s prophecy (1 Kings and 2 Kings).

23 And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. (1 Kings 21: 23)

33 And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot.

34 And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter.

35 And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. (2 Kings 9: 33-35)

VERSES: King James Bible

The Death of Jezebel, Paul Gustave Doré

And let’s not forget the tag Jezebel that was given to defenseless enslaved black women by both the white man and the white woman. To justify his brutal rapes of black women and girls, the white man called black women Jezebels, and to rationalize her white husband’s rape and to look away from the defilement of forced sex and pregnancy done to black women by the white woman’s husband, son, uncle, and other white males, she considered the black woman as an evil temptress who lured her weak-willed, immoral white man astray.

Black women still have to fight against the hatreds that white people’s racist/sexist stereotyping has done. The damage of four centuries of lies and slanderous myths attest to that.

But, this comment really pissed me off:

“Bo Derek-inspired cornrows”?

Oh, yeah, I forgot.

Bo Derek created cornrows………………..6,000 years ago in Africa.

Yep, we poor benighted black women owe it all to her for creating a hairstyle that is older than the United States of America. A hairstyle that it was not possible for black women to have created, I mean, what the hell have black women ever created in America anyway?

White men and women did it all.

Oh, my, what on Earth would we poor, black women do without the Bo Dereks of the world?

Black women and our hair. Our hair is unique, our hair is one-of-a-kind. Our hair is beautiful.

Let no one tell you differently.

 AFRO-ED DANCER AT THE TRIBECA FILM DESTIVAL.