What Britney and Beyonce have in Common

Malena Amusa

What Britney and Beyonce have in Common

The world stops when a white woman goes bald.

Britney Spears’ big hair cut last week, shortly after checking into a rehabilitation center, was proof.

Since, the pop singer and her royal baldness have enjoyed more than a week of massive news coverage. That’s just about as many news days Beyonce has gotten for her recent Sports Illustrated debut which made her only one of two black women in history to solo-cover-shoot the magazine that has long set the tone for who’s sexy and who’s, well—better suited for snatching green balls bouncing across tennis courts.

Between these two mega stars, one can clearly see that hair plays a bigger role in our culture than we’re ready to give credit to.

But I’d argue that Britney’s real news story was not her hair while Beyonce’s news story should have been.

The main crux of my argument lies in our social construction of femininity and its subsequent shortage of freedom of hair expression that exists for the spectrum of women along the color line.

When Britney, made famous for huffing and puffing over a mike sheds her locks, she becomes a paragon of mental problems? Her latest behavior, running around town banging on cars, is more indicative.

When Beyonce swirls her booty with the same might she does her long locks of fake, blond weaved-hair, she becomes a statue of beauty.

Both the taboo and the norm are very narrow parameters for women to work within.

Further, Spears’ hair scandal says a lot about expectations of femininity for white woman, and indirectly, that those expectations are not held for black women.

Today, it’s much more acceptable for a black woman to sport shorter hair—because its tandem to our expectation that she is also strong and prone to militant outbursts.

But at the same time, it’s only when black women wear European hair weaves that they are able to become pop culture news stories, sit on Oprah’s couch, and appear on the Red Carpet.

For black women, weaves are touted as our solution to our problem of un-femininity, for white women, their baldness is seen as an indicator of their personal problems.

Ultimately, a woman remains tied to her hair that binds her identity to her sexuality; and if she strays too far, she’s treated like an abomination of femininity, an embarrassment to her people.

Together, Britney and Beyonce show this. And also that to the extent a woman can achieve long, luscious European hair—is also the extent we view her as rational, sexable, and ultimately, female.

Recently, I conducted a hair experiment where I transformed my afro to a long and straight weave to see how it would change my perception of self. You can read the full conclusion of that trial here. I consider it the contextual bridge that connects me to the stars…

Posted at 7:24 AM, Feb 23, 2007 in Pop Culture | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

Wow, great post! Such a good point about expectations of femininity re: black women vs. white women.

Love your blog. I haven't read yet about your experiment in changing hair but I will...As a white woman, middle-aged now, definately looking like a mommy, big--okay, fat--I love the way you address the issues raised by Britney too. My racialized appearance and hair haunts me too, although I do not pay as high as price as a woman of colour. When I was young (and thin, and as I look at my daughter now, I realize I was very pretty then--but my gender issues meant I couldn't see and enjoy that beauty) old ladies on the bus always seemed to think I was a sweet young thing, when I wanted to express a self more influenced by anarchism, existentialism, punk rock and Marxian thought. Now, I want to talk about violence against women and new forms of discrimination like stigma against kids who have been sexually abused, child prostitution, etc.--and all people think about when they see me is a prude! (BTW--blond, blue-eyed, extremely fair, WASP background too.) It's a problem...However, I am grateful that I will not be approached on the street and assumed I am a prostitute--and I wasn't when I was young either--or targetted for hate crimes, like the Aboriginal women of my home in Western Canada who disappear regularly and police do not investigate. However, my whiteness/blondness makes it hard for me to overcome the distrust of women of colour with whom I would love to work more...I feel very sad about hair weaves and blonde hair dyeing on women of colour. As a natural blonde, I don't want blondeness to mean what it does in our society either!

Thank you for talking about this. I,too, feel it is a larger indication of something amiss in our society. As an African-american woman who chooses to have her hair natural, I have had so many negative reactions to the point where I can no longer believe that it is "no big deal" as so many people around say when the disparity is brought to their attention. Articles like this need to be written often and widely read!

Oh geez, I'm African and we really don't sit around wishing we had white womens' blonde hair. If a black woman wants to grow her hair, she can. It's not plastic surgery lol. Have you taken a look at the women of the 30s and 40s. What was their hair like? Not too long huh? Hell Marilyn Monroe had hair the length of black women who don't bother to grow their hair long. But she was a bombshell. Beyonce's real hair is long actually, maybe shoulder length. Without the weave her career would be no different, well maybe not amongst white people. Either way, long, waist length hair is not something I see often in white women. I see it in Asian and Native American women. Most white women I know who dye their hair blonde have hair of similar texture (a bit thin) and length as an ordinary black woman with straightened hair.