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Working on my hair: the politics of Afrocentricity in the fictional workplace

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dc.contributor.authorBlackburn, Hayley, author
dc.date.accessioned2017-11-13T14:57:25Z
dc.date.available2017-11-13T14:57:25Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.descriptionThis entry placed with the Graduate Student Council Award category.en_US
dc.description.abstractI examine the representations of Black women characters in professional settings on seven television drama texts. Black features are subjected to Eurocentering-the reduction of racial heritage markers to align with Eurocentric values-to protect hegemonic traditions under the guise of racial neoliberalism. This study focuses on hairstyles for Black women because hair functions as a racial signifier to the audience and is thus a key component of the visual rhetoric under observation. I answer the research question: how does the visibility and representation of natural hair invite the audience to discipline Blackness in professional spaces. The findings reflect that natural hair does lack visibility, with less than 25% of the sample representing significant moments for the main characters to interact with natural hair, and when visible the representation tends towards a disciplinary frame. Natural hair is a symbol of the Black savage framing that reinforces the superiority of Whiteness in the professional world. The Black woman with altered hair becomes a symbol for a civilized, thus successful, Black body able to participate in a professional society while natural hair remains the symbol for the opposite. Overall, audiences are invited to view natural hair in a very limited capacity for professional characters, and the framing reinforces negative perceptions of natural hair for Black women in a work-based Western society.en_US
dc.description.awardGraduate Student Council - New Graduate Student - Research Top Scholar.
dc.format.mediumborn digital
dc.format.mediumStudent works
dc.format.mediumposters
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10217/184842
dc.languageEnglishen_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherColorado State University. Librariesen_US
dc.relation.ispartof2017 Projects
dc.rightsCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.
dc.subjecttelevision
dc.subjectnatural hair
dc.subjectrhetoric
dc.subject.lcshAfrocentricity
dc.subject.lcshBlack women
dc.titleWorking on my hair: the politics of Afrocentricity in the fictional workplaceen_US
dc.title.alternative043 - Hayley Eve Blackburnen_US
dc.title.alternativeHair politics for Black women in the fictional workplaceen_US
dc.typeText
dc.typeImage
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