Stephanie Saunders

Dr. Moira Baker

October 22, 2002

Senior Seminar

Working Bibliography &

Annotations Set #2

Working Bibliography

Banks, Ingrid. Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, & Black Women's Consciousness. New York: New York UP, 2000.

Connor, Marc C. “From the Sublime to the Beautiful: The Aesthetic Progression of Toni Morrison.” The Aesthetics of Toni Morrison: Speaking the Unspeakable. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2000.

Grogan, Sarah. Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Hamilton, Kendra. “Embracing ‘Black is Beautiful.’” Black Issues in Higher Education 17.23 (2001): 22 par. Online. Infotrac Web: Expanded Academic ASAP. 21 October 2002.

Hidler, Michelle S. The Relationship between Mothers’ and Daughters’ Attitudes about Eating and Body Image. M.A. Thesis. Radford U, 1996.

Peiss, Kathy. “Shades of Difference.” Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1998.

Phillips, Evelyn. “Doing More than Heads: African American Women Healing, Resisting, and Uplifting Others in St. Petersburg, Florida.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 22.2 (2001): 25-42. Online. Project Muse. 21 October 2002.

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Rooks, Noliwe M. Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1996.

---. “Beauty, Race, and Black Pride.” 23-50.

---. “Gender, Hair, and African American Women’s Magazines.” 97-114.

---. “Nappi by Nature: Afros, Hot Combs, and Black Pride.” 1-22.

Silverman, Robert M. “The Effects of Racism and Racial Discrimination on Minority Business Development: The Case of Black Manufacturers in Chicago’s Ethnic Beauty Aids Industry.” Journal of Social History 31.3 (1998): 83 par. Online. Infotrac Web: Expanded Academic ASAP. 21 October 2002.

Smith, Chrysa. “New Attitudes toward Color: The Ethnic Cosmetic Market.” Drug & Cosmetic Industry 147.5 (1990): 16 par. Online. Infotrac Web: Expanded Academic ASAP. 21 October 2002.

Stern, Katherine. “Toni Morrison’s Beauty Formula.” Connor 77-91.

Walther, Malin. “Out of Sight: Toni Morrison’s Revision of Beauty.” Literature Forum 24.4 (1990): 775-789. Online. JSTOR. 21 October 2002.

White, Shane. Stylin: African American Expressive Culture from its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1998.

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Connor, Marc C. “From the Sublime to the Beautiful: The Aesthetic Progression of Toni Morrison.” The Aesthetics of Toni Morrison: Speaking the Unspeakable. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2000.

The beginning of this article was not particularly useful because it discussed Morrison’s use of community within her novels, which did not particularly interest me during my search. However, I do realize that Pecola does not have as strong of a community as Claudia, for example, and this is one of the factors that affects her self-image. He discusses Pecola’s place on the fringe of the community, but this is an aspect of which I am well aware.

Later in the article, he discusses Song of Solomon and Beloved, but these pages were of no real interest because they do not concern my pressing topic. Overall, this article was a disappointment because I was already aware of the information and ideas he presented about The Bluest Eye, and instead of dealing with “the beautiful,” like I thought it would (based on the title), it dealt with the aesthetics of the novels themselves, rather than the particular situations and aspects of beauty for which I was searching.

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Hamilton, Kendra. “Embracing ‘Black is Beautiful.’” Black Issues in Higher Education 17.23 (2001): 22 par. Online. Infotrac Web: Expanded Academic ASAP. 21 October 2002.

The premise of this article is that the concept of beauty is finally evolving. Hamilton quotes the beauty director and editor of Essence magazine, Mikki Taylor: “We were stripped of everything—all our tools, our rituals, our practices from the moment of our arrival on this continent. We were brought up to a world that despised us as well as lusted after us and taught us that we were naked” (par.1). This quote seems relevant because while men lusted after black women, they were certainly not part of cultural beauty standards.

Hamilton goes on to mention another quote by Taylor, on the idea that “Black is Beautiful”: “The 60’s started the notion, but I think today we are truly living it” (par. 9). The article discusses the percentage of income that Blacks spend “25% more of their disposable income on personal care products than the general population.” (par.11). Honestly, I do not know if this is necessarily positive. While it certainly points out that there are multiple products available to Black women, it also suggests that Black women feel a great need to make up themselves. That “women of color spend three times more on hair maintenance” than the average population is also a disturbing fact, because Black women have to spend more money for perms and chemical processing, in order to get the straight corporate look that White women establish in the workplace (par. 14).

Hamilton quotes another source to document the fact that, “people of color tend to be judged more harshly. When we still have executive vice presidents being mistaken for the janitor because of the color of their skin, it’s not hard to see why someone might move from deciding to buy a good suit to deciding to buy an Armani suit” (par 18).

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Although this article is quite current, and does not necessarily reflect the specific attitudes during the time of The Bluest Eye, I liked the article because it clearly shows the difference between the beauty standards of Black and White women and it used numbers to back up ideas that I already had. If I am able to incorporate present attitudes into my thesis paper, this article will definitely be useful, and even if I cannot, this article was very intriguing and disturbing.

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Peiss, Kathy. “Shades of Difference.” Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1998.

There is a fantastic quote in the introduction to this chapter, quoting Chandler Owen: “If people of color ruled the world, white people would curl their hair and darken their skin” (203). The chapter was worth it just for that quote alone; it seems to sum up many important ideas that I have, and that others have explored. I could even use this quote to close or begin my paper. The chapter includes many other ideas, including a discussion of Madam C. J. Walker and her definite influence on the Black beauty industry, as well as manufacturers of skin bleaches and lighteners, which Walker refused to market.

Walker’s emphasis was on making black women feel beautiful in their own skins, as opposed to lighter skins. She had a proactive approach to beauty that was revolutionary. Rather than preaching that black women could only be beautiful by attempting to look like white women, Walker proposed that black women could feel beautiful by taking good care of the skin types and hair types that they had. This was a very important movement because it proved that beauty comes in all shades and there is no single beauty standard to which black women had to adhere.

Another woman, Nannie Burroughs, had this to say:

Many women who bleach and straighten out make as their only excuse that it improves appearance. A true woman wouldn’t give a cent for a changed appearance of this sort—a superficial nothing. What every woman who bleaches and straightens out needs, is not her appearance changed, but her mind. She has a false notion as to the value of color and hair in solving the problems of her life. Why does she wish to improve her appearance? Why not improve her real self? (207)

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If Pecola had only known this approach, maybe her life would not have been as tragic. True, she is a literary figure, but her circumstances merely represent an extreme. This chapter will be extremely useful in the research and development for my paper. I am grateful for it!

Page 8

This rather lengthy article discusses many aspects of the history of Black women, including racism and sexual exploitation by white men, especially when the women worked in the house. While it refers specifically to several women who make it their goals to uplift the race, which does not directly relate to my topic, one segment of the article relates well. The heading is “Beauty Culture as a Key to Self-Sufficiency: Mrs. Williams.” Mrs. Williams, a woman the author interviewed, never worked for whites, yet she was a licensed beautician who ended up owning her own business. Mrs. Williams did not believe that she would make a good servant because she was very opinionated, so she became an apprentice and learned the beauty trade. She sold and used products manufactured by Madame C. J. Walker. The Black beauticians established groups and leagues.

Later, many of the Black beauty schools closed, and this left a gap because few of the younger Black women knew how to do hair without chemicals. Mrs. Williams successfully led a new school to teach Black women the art of proper hair care. This article provided some very useful background information, as well as some insight towards Walker and the beauty industry.

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Rooks, Noliwe M. Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1996.

---. “Beauty, Race, and Black Pride.” 23-50.

This chapter goes back as far as the 1830’s to suggest that White mistresses of the plantations set the first standard of beauty for women. These mistresses had a great deal of power, and they obviously had this power over their slaves because of their skin color. Therefore, it is quite logical that the White standard of beauty equaled power and prestige, because it was what clearly marked the boundaries between slavery and freedom.

This chapter also discussed prominent advertisements during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Products that were advertised between 1866 and 1905 include: “Black Skin Remover, Black and White Ointment, Ozonized Ox Marrow, and Curl-I-Cure: A Cure for Curls” (27). The actual ad is reprinted within the text of the article (out of Richmond, VA, no less) and there is a picture of a blackened face facing a picture of a white one. The black face has no features, whereas the white woman’s face has a distinct nose and cheekbones. It appears to be the same woman in a before-and-after shot, promoting the idea that from one’s own will (and pocketbook), skin color can change and beauty can be revealed.

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Rooks. “Gender, Hair, and African American Women’s Magazines.” 97-114.

The beginning of the chapter speaks for itself: “This chapter is not so much about hair’s significance as it is about the opportunities hairdressing afforded a group of African American women to address the tensions that working outside of the home caused in individual African American households” (97). A magazine came out for black women, Woman’s Voice, which addressed the tensions associated with working outside the home.

I did not find this chapter to be as useful as I expected. It really did not discuss hair very much, and it talked about gender simply because there were women in this chapter and the magazines were directed towards women and backed by women hairdressers. Although this is significant in the women’s abilities to succeed financially, at this time I am more interested in the particular kinds of beauty standards marketed towards Black women. This did not address my needs as well as the other chapter, but it did address the fact that Black women were indeed working outside of the home, and became more financially stable during the C. J. Walker era. However, there was no real mention of the beauty standards to which Pecola tried so desperately to adhere.

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Rooks. “Nappi by Nature: Afros, Hot Combs, and Black Pride.” 1-22.

This chapter was very intriguing, and the author began a story that drew me in immediately. She refers to her childhood as “I was a black activist baby” (2). She discusses her family background and her youthful familiarity with Black revolutionary groups and figures. Therefore, it is very interesting to hear her discuss her first adolescent hair-straightening experience, because within her family and community, there was a large focus on Black Pride. Rooks’ mother saw the desire for straight hair as molding to fit white standards of beauty, and Rooks saw it as a desire to “fit in” with the other students in her new school, because none of the other girls wore their hair in the natural style (3).

Despite Rooks’ mother’s adamant refusal to allow her daughter’s hair to be straightened, as soon as she headed south to spend the summer with her grandmother, she got her hair straightened. Rejecting the Black Pride politics, her grandmother understood the “politics of acceptance” (4). Yet, that did not prevent white men from blasting out her grandmother’s windows with shotguns. Straight hair did not really equal acceptance.

Later, Rooks’ hair “went back” and she then decided to wear cornrows, but she longed for the beauty parlor days when she could listen to the ladies gossip—the whole beauty parlor culture.

The chapter includes a fascinating poem by Willi Coleman, called “Among the Things that Used to Be.” Some prominent lines include:

Lots more got taken care of

than hair

Cause in our mutual obvious dislike for nappiness

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we came together

under the hot comb

to share

and share

But now we walk

heads high

naps full of pride

with not a backward glance

at some of the beauty which

use to be[…]

Beauty shops

could have been’a hell-of-a-place

to ferment

a…..revolution. (9)

The chapter mentions straight hair advertisements and the politics of Afros and chemically straightened hair. It was very interesting and fun to read, and I am sure it can find a place within my research.

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Smith, Chrysa. “New Attitudes toward Color: The Ethnic Cosmetic Market.” Drug & Cosmetic Industry 147.5 (1990): 16 par. Online. Infotrac Web: Expanded Academic ASAP. 21 October 2002.

I should have realized, by the journal title, that this article would be largely facts and numbers. I didn’t find it interesting at all, and I learned just as much from Hamilton’s article, except that one was in a much more readable context. There is really no place for this article in my research whatsoever. I was very disappointed because I did not realize this until after I chose to read and annotate it. However, these numbers matched those in the Hamilton article, which did add some accuracy. If I do quote the fact that Black women spend three times as much as white women on hair care, I may use the statistics from this journal since it directly relates to the cosmetic industry. I also felt responsible because it seemed as if I was double-checking my statistics, which is never a negative thing.

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Stern, Katherine. “Toni Morrison’s Beauty Formula.” Connor 77-91.

Stern quotes Morrison in the first sentence: “The concept of physical beauty as a virtue is one of the dumbest, most pernicious and destructive attitudes of the Western world, and we should have nothing to do with it” (77). Morrison rejects the idea that beauty is connected to any inward traits, and yet it is Pecola’s lack of self-esteem (because she thinks she is not beautiful) that destroys mind. There are also quotes from the text of The Bluest Eye that I missed. Pauline “was never able, after her education in the movies, to look at a face and not assign it some category in the scale of absolute beauty” (78).

Stern shows “how Morrison draws our attention away from the visual, the static, the remote, or idealized object, towards an experience of physical beauty that is tangible and improvisational, relational and contextual, involving mutual efforts to feel as well as see” (78). She argues that in Morrison’s work, beauty depends on the beholder’s craft or intention and results from labor upon the body either by the hands or the imagination (79). She mentions Morrison’s comments in The Bluest Eye’s Afterward: “Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do” (79). Morrison’s beauty formula “seems to define a necessarily ethical and inclusive response to human bodies, one that extends tenderness to every person and precludes doing harm” (79).

The Maginot Line’s eyes look, to Claudia, like,” waterfalls in movies about Hawaii” (qtd. Morrison). Stern concludes, “cosmetic rituals in the early novels express not only the danger of received notions of beauty, but also the character’s persistent yearning to have agency in conferring beauty upon themselves” (80). The article mentions some of the other aspects that I will cover in my paper, including the Black women’s beauty culture in the era of Madame C. J. Walker, as well as several examples of this culture from Morrison’s other novels.

Stern finishes her article with a beautiful concluding sentence: “The body’s aesthetic powers, that is, its feelings and perceptions, are its virtue; and that physical beauty occurs to us the moment we fully imagine the body—the moment we hold it, as we would hold a great book, in awe” (91). This essay had some poignant, fitting quotes, as well as some strong points about Morrison’s work; it should be very helpful with my thesis.

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Walther, Malin. “Out of Sight: Toni Morrison’s Revision of Beauty.” Literature Forum 24.4 (1990): 775-789. Online. JSTOR. 21 October 2002.

This is a great article. Walther brings up many points that I agree with, and more importantly, which are relevant to my thesis. Early on, she states that Morrison “forces a reconsideration of the framework feminists use to discuss the specular system and female beauty” (775). That she brings up the idea that even feminists are trapped within the typical white discourse of beauty is not a startling one, but it is important nonetheless. It shows that even women who consider themselves liberal thinkers can be bogged down in traditional notions and the “racial underpinnings” of beauty (775).

Walther presents her ideas concerning criteria for beauty: “A hidden criterion for female beauty is idleness: To be beautiful one must have soft hands and dainty feet. Morrison’s later works insists on a beauty who is useful, a beauty who works” (776). She mentions Pauline’s fascination with the movies further down this page, and although the information is a bit long to quote (roughly a paragraph of great material), it is through the movies that Pauline gathers her ideas of beauty, and begins to make over herself to look more like the movie stars. This is also interesting because it creates a whole new beauty discourse, beauty in the media, which is still highly prominent in beauty culture today. These ideas continue on page 778, where she further argues that Pauline’s negative self-image begins when she attends the movies. Much of the other ideas in this article overlap other articles I have read, so although the rest of the information was useful, it was also redundant.