Back to the roots: politics, body and consumption in the celebration of curly and black hair

• Grant number: 17/08760-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Isadora Lins França
• Grantee: Marcella Uceda Betti
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The main goal of this proposal is to investigate processes of subjectivity and production of identities related to gender, race, politics and aesthetics, electing as study object the beauty market for women with curly and Black hair and the production of discourses that celebrate these hair textures. Nowadays women with curly and Black hair are abandoning straightening methods and going through hair transition and big chop. To these women, hair is not just an aesthetic element or an object of individual anxiety, getting political relevance because it is an important aspect of the construction of identities in the intersection of gender and race. Issues such as the celebration of an African ancestry, the struggle against racism, the female empowerment and the contestation of social standards considered artificial and oppressive are brought into play. Thus, aesthetics is politics, and the discourses about hair clearly show much more than the application of techniques and the choice of products, pointing to processes of subjectivity and production of identities. The methodology of this research consists of the multi-sited ethnography of online contexts - Facebook groups, blogs and YouTube channels - and of beauty parlors, beauty market conventions and meetups organized by women with curly and Black hair. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

BETTI, Marcella Uceda. Back to the roots: politics, body, and consumption in the valorization of curly and kinky hair. 2022. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas Campinas, SP.