Let's Talk Texturism

This is a topic I’ve never dug too deep into beyond surface level because I think everyone has always been aware of the biases against anything again the beauty standard (let me know if we should discuss things like colorism or featurism down the line as these definitely go hand in hand).

In a nutshell, texturism is the favouring of individuals with straight hair, and prejudicing against those with tighter curl patterns. This can also involve prejudice against tighter curl patters, e.g 4c hair, yet individuals with looser curl patterns get praise for their hair, as looser curls are “good hair”, and they have the "accepted" form of natural hair. Whereas, tighter, kinkier hair is “rough”, “unprofessional”, “dirty”, “untamed”, and every other stereotype you could think of. Having long loose curls is seen as the beauty standard within the black community especially. Of course, this is routed in white supremacy, as these features fit with westernised beauty standards.

As a consequence of this prejudice, a lot of direct and indirect discrimination has resulted, such as:

Getting expelled from schools

It’s nothing new that black students with tighter curl patterns, or students who wear protective styles such as braids, have been discriminated against within school dress codes. This doesn’t only occur within the western world, but even in some South African countries. This has been so normalised to the point where black women can’t feel comfortable wearing their hair just how it grows as it does not comply with a workplace image, and they’d often be punished for doing so. This has even happened to me personally. However, non-black individuals can often get by with a “messy bun” or even brightly died hair and no one would batter an eye as straight/wavy hair is seen as the norm.

An example of this is secondary school student Chickayzea Flanders, who experienced a lot of backlash from teachers for his hair. He was sent to “isolation” within school hours, which took his away from lesson time, and following this, he faced expulsion from the school.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f83f20_e506350df65c4ffbbc4029ffdfe73f42/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

As seen in the video, the dress code of the school has rules condemning “braids, dreadlocks and cult hairstyles”. This is indirect discrimination as these are hairstyles which black students would be utilising, in order to maintain health of their hair, therefore targeting these students as their only option would then be to cut our natural hair short, or hair it in straightened hairstyles. Whereas non-black students would only need to ensure that their hair is not dyed a non-natural colour. It is clear that the standards are not even and therefore this student has fallen victim of texturism, to the point where this is seen as more of a priority than the students learning and their behaviour.

At risk of losing job opportunities

It’s unfortunate to have the knowledge that just as tattoos or piercings can lead to judgement from the general public, so can any hairstyles which are deemed as distracting and unprofessional. As we know, our natural hair is usually deemed as abnormal and less professional. This puts minority groups at an instant disadvantage in the job market, just from how our hair grows.

I’ve seen cases where hiring managers expressed that they’ve rejected candidates because their hair became the first point of conversation, which takes away from the conversation of discussing qualifications. With this, there’s also been situations of candidates touching their hair often, and even this being seen as a distraction and therefore being rejected.

Even when my friends and I are preparing for job interviews, we tend to avoid clarifying that we are black if we have the option to (this procedure is known as blinding), and try to whitewash ourselves as much as possible, just to blend in, with intentions to increase our chances of employment, and avoid any bias.

That being said, I once went to a placement for university, and the professional which I worked with would always feel the need to point out how “other” I am. I once came into a shift after getting some passion twists done, mind you, when this happened, I had worked with this assessor for a couple weeks by that point. Once the placement was completed and it came to grading my work, she had marked down my professionalism grade, saying that my hairstyle is not that appropriate for any workplace. She followed this by explaining that my appearance makes me come off unprofessional, non-dedicated and that I should remove them before my next placement allocation. The fact that my grades, which are extremely important as they mark my progress within the course, are being influenced by factors like my appearance, as well as making assumptions on my personality based on only this, is putting me at an automatic disadvantage. Especially since my course has a majority of white women and men, who would not need to struggle with this situation.

The fact that we’ve been doing this since childhood, the second we entered the school world, it’s now ingrained in us that however we naturally look, will not be good enough as long as it is the opposite of any westernised beauty standard. This can also go for the way some of us speak, or even our body types, as minorities are often oversexualized in the workplace.

There was actually an interesting study I found carried out in August 2020, submitted by Ellen Scott (METRO, 2020). The study evidenced the bias against black natural hair, by two groups being interviewed, one group with straightened hair, and one group wearing their natural hair, and taking feedback on how the interviewer scored them and why. You can probably guess the conclusion of this study but I prompt you to have a quick read!

The link to the article “Black women who keep their hair natural ‘less likely to get jobs’”:

https://metro.co.uk/2020/08/15/black-women-who-keep-hair-natural-less-likely-get-jobs-13132788/?ito=article.desktop.share.top.link

Hair becoming your personality trait as it’s too “attention grabbing”

As previously mentioned, it is extremely normalized for individuals to make assumptions on character, based on how their hair looks, to the point where it can over shine their actual talents and qualifications.

A perfect example of this is Gabby Douglas. In case you’re unaware, Gabby is a gymnast who became a household name in 2012 when she became the all-around champion in gymnastics at the Olympic Games in London, England.

This history- making athlete has won gold medals and is extremely talented, especially for her age, but can you guess what people discuss the most about her? Yup, her hair. People would describe her as "un-kept", and make comments like “She should comb her hair before competing”, or how she cannot be taken seriously because of how her hair looked. Gabby has exclaimed that her hair was damaged and had some bald spots, due to the tight hairstyles she would have to wear for gymnastics. Because of this, people paid a little too much attention to her hair, to the point where she received backlash for years. Again, all because her hair looked different to people’s expectations. Why should a talented athlete have to have endless conversations on her hair, just because many are unimpressed by it? Can't her skill be enough to take the spotlight?

Have you had any experiences with texturism? Were you aware that this exists? Feel free to submit your stories and we can have a chit chat about it! I definitely have more than I can count.