Why We Need a National CROWN Act

Discrimination and intersecting forms of oppression directed at Black women influence how they look, live, work, interact with others, and even view their bodies and identities. Black hair has been and remains a target of this discrimination and oppression by obligating Black women to strive toward White beauty norms. Still under consideration in several states, the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act provides a legislative intervention to protect Black women (and men) from hair discrimination at work, during school, and as they go about their daily lives. This article examines the politics affecting Black hair. The data for this study came from semi-structured interviews with 22 Black women who define their hair as natural. The results indicate that racial history and stereotypes continue to create unachievable standards for Black hair; that Black women continue to encounter discrimination when embracing their natural hair; and that wearing Black natural hair is often an uplifting decision for the women who elect to do so. The fact that others continue to challenge and discriminate against Black natural in multiple venues confirms the need for a national CROWN Act.

The African Rhinoplasty

Across ethnicities, patients seeking rhinoplasty have similar goals—a natural looking nose that fits and complements the rest of their facial features. Beyond a harmonious nose, patients of African descent have a particularly strong desire for ethnically congruent results in spite of individual aesthetic rhinoplasty preferences. This strong appeal for ethnically sensitive alterations is fueled by the desire to maintain physical identification with one's African ethnicity. There are psychosocial penalties when rhinoplasty outcomes stray toward complete racial transformation. Consequently, rhinoplasty in patients of African descent requires a fundamental understanding of acceptable beauty norms, associated psychological underpinnings, as well as unique facial and nasal features among Africans. Beyond these ethnically sensitive nuances, classic rhinoplasty techniques of framework modification with cartilage contouring, grafting, and bone remodeling are applicable in reshaping the African nose.

Sexist Slurs: Reinforcing Feminine Stereotypes Online

Social media platforms are accused repeatedly of creating environments in which women are bullied and harassed. We argue that online aggression toward women aims to reinforce traditional feminine norms and stereotypes. In a mixed methods study, we find that this type of aggression on Twitter is common and extensive and that it can spread far beyond the original target. We locate over 2.9 million tweets in one week that contain instances of gendered insults (e.g., “bitch,” “cunt,” “slut,” or “whore”)—averaging 419,000 sexist slurs per day. The vast majority of these tweets are negative in sentiment. We analyze the social networks of the conversations that ensue in several cases and demonstrate how the use of “replies,” “retweets,” and “likes” can further victimize a target. Additionally, we develop a sentiment classifier that we use in a regression analysis to compare the negativity of sexist messages. We find that words in a message that reinforce feminine stereotypes inflate the negative sentiment of tweets to a significant and sizeable degree. These terms include those insulting someone’s appearance (e.g., “ugly”), intellect (e.g., “stupid”), sexual experience (e.g., “promiscuous”), mental stability (e.g., “crazy”), and age (“old”). Messages enforcing beauty norms tend to be particularly negative. In sum, hostile, sexist tweets are strategic in nature. They aim to promote traditional, cultural beliefs about femininity, such as beauty ideals, and they shame victims by accusing them of falling short of these standards.

Color Theraphy: Red Lipstick Meningkatkan Self Acceptence Mahasiswa Dalam Menghadapi Beauty Norms

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apakah terdapat perbedaan tingkat self acceptance mahasiswi FISIPOL Unmul setelah diberi metode color therapy dengan media lipstick merah. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif eksperimen dan desain yang digunakan adalah Static Group Comparison. Static Group Comparison merupakan desain eksperimen yang memberikan perlakuan hanya kepada satu kelompok. Subjek penelitian ini adalah 15 orang kelompok eksperimen. Data yang diperoleh kemudian dianalisis menggunakan uji analisis regresi linear berganda dengan bantuan program Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 23.0 for Windows. Berdasarkan hasil uji paired t test diperoleh hasil: (1) tidak ada perbedaan self acceptance mahasiswi FISIPOL unmul setelah diberi color therapy red lisptick yang ditunjukan dengan hasil pre test-post test kelompok eksperimen, dengan t hitung = -0,180 (< t tabel = 2,145) dan 𝑝 = 0,860 (𝑝> 0.05). Dan hasil post test-follow up, t hitung = -0,327 (< t tabel = 2,145) dan 𝑝 = 0,748 (𝑝> 0.05); (2) tidak ada perbedaan self acceptance mahasiswi FISIPOL Unmul setelah diberikan materi tentang self acceptance dan beauty norms yang ditunjukan dengan hasil pre test- post test kelompok kontrol, dengan t hitung = 2.033 (< t tabel = 2,145) dan 𝑝 = 0,061 (𝑝> 0.05). Dan hasil post test-follow up t hitung = -1.047 (< t tabel = 2,145) dan 𝑝 = 0,313 (𝑝> 0.05).

Alien Beauty: Posthuman Re-Imaginings

In the fall of 2018 WGSN (World Global Style Network) ran a report on the emerging “alien beauty” trend, which they defined as “an otherworldly aesthetic inspired by extraterrestrial life forms … signifying a new rebellious attitude towards quintessential beauty norms” (Bailey). Instagram is one of the largest platforms to represent the trend of alien beauty, presented by a thriving community of makeup artists pushing the boundaries of conventional beauty practices. These artists are developing otherworldly and exaggerated makeup looks created through the combination of makeup, fashion, technology, and social media. The following research attempts to outline elements of beauty that are engaged with through alien beauty, and through creative practice presents them on conventionally beautiful bodies to demonstrate new, challenging version of beauty. Alien beauty selfies shared via Instagram can be re-contextualized to challenge existing examples of art, nature, and beauty. Through practice-based methodology and theories of posthumanism, this piece explores the changing ideals of beauty manifested with the support of technology and social media as well as how the term “alien beauty” manifests as a current trend. Considering the re-imagined paintings created to explore alien beauty, they reveal how beauty has been traditionally constructed through a colonial, heteronormative, hegemonic gaze and how “alien” is therefore a form of escapism and rebellion.

What Is Body Positivity?

“Body positivity” refers to the movement to accept our bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender, and physical abilities. The movement is often implicitly understood as the effort to celebrate diversity in bodily aesthetics and to expand our narrow beauty standards beyond their present-day confines. Like other feminists, I question whether the push to broaden beauty norms should occupy as central a role as it does now in the movement’s mainstream incarnations, and I believe that, beyond challenging confining beauty standards, body positivity should teach us that all bodies are worthy—for example, of care and respect. My aim in this paper is to offer a general account of body positivity. I argue that body positivity should be understood as the transition from limiting body shame to proper body pride. I adopt a pluralistic approach to body positivity, incorporating the idea that we should not only expand aesthetic standards, but also celebrate such aspects of embodiment as our capacity for bodily pleasure or our bodily abilities. What is common to these different ways of developing empowering relations to our bodies is the move to resist all forms of body shame that limit our flourishing and to cultivate proper pride in one’s body. I conclude by considering several avenues toward embodying such pride and, thus, embracing body positivity: expanding beauty ideals; promoting equal access to physical activities and celebrating the accomplishments of all athletes, regardless of body size or level of ability; and consciousness-raising.