There is a video that has gone viral from the geniuses at Sesame Street, featuring a girl of colour singing her heart out about how she loves her hair.
The first I heard of it was this news report, and it made me smile. I loved that this man loved his daughter so much, he came up with a way, through his work , to show his little girl that her hair is beautiful just the way it is. I tracked it down and downloaded it for my little Grrl Cub (who at this point could care less that the Muppet loves her hair, she just cares that it's a Muppet), and so my whole family could see it. I am surprised at the strength of my feelings about this. I wish that something like this had been around when I was a Gatita. Had there been, perhaps I wouldn't have ever chemically altered my hair within an inch of its life, I dunno. Perhaps my mami wouldn't have ever taken me to the salon to get it done for the convenience and ease of styling it (for her). I thought it was a brilliant masterstroke from the head writer, Joey Mazzarino. Sesame Street has always been a game changer, from how children were taught, to how the death of a loved one should be dealt with. They have always had the balls to change the game. And they're doing it again...and people are pissed.
The main complaint I am hearing is that Sesame Street shouldn't have made it a "race thing", that it should've been a message for everyone with kinky hair. What these people fail to realise is that the song was mainly made for a little girl who didn't like her hair...a little AFRICAN girl.
Go back and read the article, watch the news segment, and the video. I'll wait.
I can't believe how many people are bugging over this. I actually commented on a story featuring it, because I was so fed up w/the ignorance--the literally "not-knowing-ness" of those who just didn't get it:
For those of you "concerned" about this being a message geared towards ONLY African-American girls, I think you ought to see the backstory on why this song and video happened to begin with:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/sesame-street-writer-inspired-daughter-creates-love-hair/story?id=11908940
For those of you that can't view that...Joey Mazzarino is a longtime Sesame Street writer, and he and his wife adopted a girl from Ethiopia. And like many of us girls with Afro-textured hair, she was bombarded w/images of Barbie and women with straight hair, which in this society, is deemed the beauty standard. She wondered why her hair wasn't straight, and she wanted hair like that to the point her father decided to make something for her to show her that her hair is beautiful the way it is. And it worked, according to him. She no longer feels that way. So, technically, YES--it WAS made for someone w/ Afro-textured hair, but ended up being a universal message for ANYONE WHO CAN IDENTIFY WITH IT. I think many of us would agree that if this segment had been around when we were in our formative years, we would have accepted our hair as is and learned to love it...like Joey's daughter.
For God's sake, stop getting all hung up on who it's aimed at and accept the message? Please?
Even after writing that, people still were bent on "it shouldn't be limited to black girls--it should be for everyone!" Whatever! What I said above is how I really feel on the subject. Yes, it was made for someone with Afro-textured hair. SFW?! If you can identify w/the message because you have
The only reason why it was a (presumably) African-American Muppet is because Joey's daughter needed someone who looked like her that she could identify with. Gawd. Get OVER it.
The ultimate message is: LOVE WHO THE HELL YOU ARE. Hair and all. Take it, drink it in, use it, and have a nice frosty bowl of STFU. Quityerbxtchin.
And in case you're wondering...yup--I have hair under my synthlox. And it is natural. Why the synthlox, you ask? I like them...end of story. I love that I can make my hair just about any colour--and I like my wild colours....I can do this w/o damaging it. I'm always changing it because I get bored easily. For some reason, I feel really at home in the synthlox. I get laughed at-- I got laughed at before by people when I wanted to install them ten years ago, only to see the same people go and get loc extensions themselves. It's okay, though. I don't wear them for anyone but myself.
Right now, I'm into this look... and growing my natural hair--which is to my shoulders when pulled taut--out underneath. Maybe someday I'll run around w/it permanently. Maybe I'll put a texturiser through it (it really hurts to comb my hair sometimes, LOL, and I can get it to still look Afro while making it easier on my comb). Who knows? Who cares? It's my freakin' hair...and I do love it.
