Liberdade por um fio uma análise do discurso sobre o cabelo crespo

Abstract

Since the colonization period in the 15th century, the contact between African people and European colonizers caused the identity of Black people to be shaped from the perspective of white people. Due to the hierarchical relationship with the imposition of submission of Black people to colonizers, the phenotypic traits of Africans began to be seen as inferior compared to Europeans. Skin color, nose and mouth width, and hair texture became symbols of Blackness, being seen as ugly, bad, and exotic, in need of some aesthetic procedure to change them closer to the ideal of normality occupied by white people. Among these traits, hair usually suffers racist attacks from childhood by Black children. People with kinky hair face aesthetic pressure to change their hair texture, straightening it to become closer to the beauty standards based on European traits. Regarding this aesthetic pressure, Black women end up suffering oppression more intensely because they have to survive in a sexist and racist society. Thus, the aim of the research is to analyze how the aesthetic pressure related to hair is related to the racism ingrained in society since colonization, how this pressure affects identities, and the importance of focusing on Black women due to the racial and gender impact. Using the theoretical-analytical framework of Michel Pêcheux (1969) and the foundations of Eni Orlandi (2012), comments on the social network Instagram were analyzed, with racist attacks directed at the kinky hair of Black children who are daughters of the actress Samara Felippo, who runs the account "Muito Além de Cachos" aimed at welcoming and promoting self-esteem of other children based on their hair. The contributions of Gomes (2012), Kilomba (2019), Bittencourt (2020), and Hooks (2014) provided the theoretical basis for discussions of racism and sexism. From the analyses, it was possible to verify that the discourses circulating socially about kinky hair being bad and in need of straightening refer to a discursive memory of what has already been said about Black people that reactivates the voice of the colonizer, being a dominant discourse that crystallized the sense that Black people are inferior and carry the biological traits of this inferiority in their bodies. That is why new spaces for discussion and dissemination of the ideology of Black Feminism on social networks are important, as they bring new effects of meaning, allowing freedom for Black people to construct their identities from their own voices.