The politics of Black hair, among women: aesthetics, relationality and dissent in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The article discusses what might be distinctive in so-called Black aesthetics. In search of an answer, I analyse three styles of female hair: hairdos made with human hair extensions; the Afro hair; hairdos made with synthetic hair extensions. I argue in favour of a dissident relational aesthetics that is generated from not always harmonic relations between Black and white women and which is constituted by its refusal to conform to the norm of white hegemonic taste, while also elaborating aesthetically on this same norm. Along with an encompassing discussion on aesthetics and their powers, I also analyse the performative dimension of race and the notions of cultural appropriation and the artefactual body. I propose that in modern Western societies we aestheticize our bodies and produce political discursiveness by the appropriation of consumer goods and services.

Key words:
Racial relations; Body; Aesthetics; Materiality; Consumption