Hair: A Girl's Concern

Goldie Barajas

English 15 Literature & Society

1/24/11           

Hair: A Girl’s Concern

            Being a girl is complicated for me at times. As a matter of fact, I dare to affirm all girls in this world have had complications due to the mere fact of being born a girl. Girls have a million things to worry about. If our hair does not look shiny and silky like in the Pantene shampoo commercials that are shown about beautiful healthy hair, then we are in trouble. If we do not dress girly or appropriately, then we are in trouble. If our make up is not done nicely and makes us look ugly, then we are in trouble. But in trouble with who? In trouble, with the media and society because our appearance is the number one thing we get criticized for by these two social forces. Nevertheless, in the selection “Plaits” from the memoir The Mee Street Chronicles: Straight Up Stories of a Black Woman’s Life by Frankie Lennon, the narrator, finds herself having trouble with these social forces but not because of her appearance in general, but because of the way her hair looked in comparison, to what the media had projected her about nice beautiful hair through Shirley Temple, a famous movie star, in the 1930’s.

            “Plaits” is a narrative in which the narrator finds herself having conflict between herself and her hair due to society and the media. This type of conflict is defined as internal and external as well because the narrator is fighting against a social force (media) and against her own self for not accepting her hair. At age six, this social force, which is the media, lets the narrator clearly know that her hair is considered ugly by society and that the only type of hair that would make her beautiful would be Little Miss Shirley Temple’s hair. Shirley Temple, as the narrator states was “a movie star and America’s sweetheart…a miniature beauty whose hair was a dream of sun-kissed curls-Shirley Temple curls-that bounced and swayed whenever she tap-danced…everyone of us wished she would wake up to find that her wiry, corkscrewed locks had turned magically into Shirley’s straight, blonde, silky curls. Her hair, they said was the best: Good Hair. Our hair, they said, was the worst: Bad Hair. Topsy-Hair. “(pg.44) Knowing this, the narrator developed hatred or disgust for her hair. She did not want to look like Buckwheat or Topsy, which white people used in the media to make fun of black people, and this meant looking horrible and farther away from acquiring Shirley Temple’s curls, which made you beautiful according to society.

            Having Shirley Temple’s silky curls would avoid the narrator some teasing from her playmates but unfortunately that was not possible especially not after the narrator’s mother braided the narrator’s hair into “a jillion itty-bitty plaits” (pg.43) causing James, one of her playmates cousin’s, to tease her and call her Buckwheat. Being called Buckwheat “was the worst name calling ever” (pg.47) and this triggered the narrator to act upon the ugly remark, James had given her. She made up her mind to do something that cooked her own goose, so to speak. That same day the narrator decided to sneak into her parents’ room, grab the scissors in the dresser’s drawer and cut-off her plaits that had some clothespins her mother had attached to them, which was the cause of James name calling her.

            The next day she woke up to find her parents staring at her in disappointment. But strangely enough she did not get a punishment because her mother thought looking like a “half-plucked” chicken was enough especially since she knew her daughter had a kindergarten play in three-weeks, in which she had planned to get curls done like Shirley Temple. The narrator wanted to look like a fairy and fit into the concept of the fairies she had always seen on magazines, which were the pretty ones with hair like Shirley Temple. The narrator had cooked her on goose, which meant she had been part of her own tragedy, which was cutting her hair because now she could not get curls like Shirley Temple. The narrative ends ironically, this means the intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually indicated had occurred. Indeed, it did the narrator ended up with nothing close to Shirley Temple’s curls.

            Now we cannot judge the narrator for her actions but understand that the pressure of wanting to have pretty, nice hair drove her to the limits of what she could stand, teasing. She could not stand being teased or name called by anyone especially not her playmates. As the narrator, many of us cannot stand the fact that sometimes our hair will not be in perfect conditions but we must remember that we are all different and that our hair is our hair short, long, curly, silky or dry it is still our hair and it is part of who we are. There is a reason why our hair is different and that should be praised. Believe it or not our hair says a lot about our beliefs or cultural background. It says a lot about ourselves. In my case, my hair says I’m a Latina and I am proud of it. So, perhaps, next time when you look at your hair, you should be proud of what it has to say to you.

Don't Get Afflicted

Goldie Barajas

English 1B

1/1/11

Don’t Get Afflicted

            The selection “Predators” from the memoir The Mee Street Chronicles: Straight Up Stories of a Black Woman’s Life by Frankie Lennon, is focused on the protagonist’ exposure to discrimination against same sex attracted individuals. The protagonist is exposed to this discrimination through the negative effects of the “Save Our Children“ campaign of 1977, on society and people around her at Allen’s, her favorite bar, in Evansville, Indiana. This campaign is headed by celebrity singer Anita Bryant and discussed in the CBS Evening News by its anchorman, Walter Cronkite, while the protagonist is at the bar having some drinks . In this selection, the protagonist would be the narrator and the antagonist would be society including Allen and the people at the bar opposing to same sex attracted people having equal rights and considered normal. These are not the only characters though, there is also the narrator’s inside voice that plays a major role in the narrator’s reactions to the remarks of discrimination being made at Allen’s and there is Sonny, who happens to visit the bar not very often. But the day he did, he said an offending comment towards lesbians that angered the protagonist enough to make her want to speak up the truth about herself and defend same sex attracted people. “Predators” is a narrative about the protagonist’ struggle on whether to show her real identity or keep hiding it in The Corners, which is the back of her mind, in which her repressed memories or better said her repressed identity was hiding.

            As far as the conflict driving the narrative’s plot I would say it is an inner and person vs. a social force conflict. Inner because throughout the narrative the protagonist is being tested by her own self. The protagonist is struggling with her own fear of coming out to her friends and society for horror of not being accepted and not belonging to the group of friends she belongs to. The fear of not belonging leads her to take in the disrespectful comments being made in the news and by people in the bar about same sex attracted people. Although, these comments anger her she does not act upon them because her fear and the voice inside her point out to the protagonist what would obviously happen if she spoke up, and said she was a lesbian. What would happen would be that society would consider her a freak, dislike her, and she would have to run away from Evansville due to the fact that she would no longer be considered normal and she would not belong there anymore. Fear is not the only reason she does not speak up though, it is definitely the fact that she values belonging to a place and fitting in that makes her step back, stay quiet and take it all in.

            Moreover, another important conflict driving the narrative’s plot is the person vs. a social force conflict. The conflict being between the protagonist and discrimination (social force) against same sex attracted individuals. The campaign “Save Our Children” headed by Anita Bryant really throws off the protagonist because it is having such a discriminatory effect on society, which is making everyone ignorant and think that same sex attracted people are freaks, should be banned from having equal rights, and are considered pedophiles. As Sonny, one of Allen’s customer states “If you ask me, all those women need is a real man that knows how to lay the pipe right!” (pg. 162) this serves as a perfect example of how ignorant people are becoming that they cannot realize women and other individuals don’t have the choice of whether to like men or women, they just do. But the narrator does not have the guts to open up to everyone and give her perspective on the subject because she is too afraid, this making her weak and too much of a conformist. These character traits definitely serve as flaws for the protagonist since they stop her from breaking out from The Corners, and be able to live comfortably with who she is a lesbian. This leading me to conclude that she values the thought of people considering her being normal as well. She does not want to be seen as different or an outsider. She dreads the thought of being excluded from what society considers normal, man loving a woman and woman loving a man, only.

            Moreover, throughout the narrative I saw the themes of Anger and Fear manifesting. These themes are apparent through the protagonist’ fear of coming out and declaring she is a lesbian.  Now, Anger at the issue of same sex attracted people being discriminated and her not being able to speak up and defend them and herself since she is indeed part of them. Also, referring to the Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Motifs List some motifs I saw manifesting in the narrative were Fear of Sexual Identity Being Discovered and Oppressed by Social Stigma. As mentioned already, the protagonist dreaded the thought of being discovered because that meant not belonging to society anymore, being considered a freak, not normal and this was due to social stigma in this case discrimination.

            It is surprising though to read this selection and realize that things have not changed at all yet. By reading “Predators” I learned that although we are in the 21^st century I still hear and see in many places where same sex attracted people are seen as contagious, not normal, or not worthy of God’s blessings. What I mean is that the author, Frankie Lennon wrote this book years ago, and I would have imagined for things to change up a bit since it seems that as years past by we should be progressing but we are not. Yes, technology is progressing but we are staying close-minded in some topics we rather avoid like talking about gay people. Instead, we are falling behind and becoming ignorant about what is visible and in my opinion normal. In fact, let’s put it this way love is a broad term with no rules or timing so if two same sex attracted individuals want to love each other then why not? At the end of the day what they are doing is loving each other as a man and woman would. It is all the same the only difference is their sex. Either way “Love is blind” isn’t it? So in my opinion it should not matter if a woman loves a woman or if a man loves a man, it is still love no matter what. Lastly, I would like to recommend this narrative to whoever wants to understand how being different from the crowd can afflict one’s mind. Through reading “Predators” I understood. Perhaps, society should understand but unfortunately it does not.