Week 9

I enjoyed attending ISCORE. My favorite presentation I went to was  "Can I Touch Your Hair? Lyricism as a space of resistance towards Eurocentric standards of beauty," because it was very interesting all the examples they gave and I identified with the idea of how to control unruly hair. It may not be as hard to control or maintain like African-American hair, but it can still be a pain. Having uncontrollable hair was not the important topic or issue they were trying to address, it was how society as whole are trying to fine into the idea of what is beautiful and how one should look instead of be you. In this seminar they should a video called "A Girl Like Me" (Here is the link: http://bit.ly/33Vc1z) The YouTube video feature young women talking about issues they have to deal with like being "dark skinned" or not having long straight beautiful blonde hair or issues of marry men who have white or lighter skin because they don't have it in their gene pool. It shows how society has the preconditions whether we admit it or not or what women should like not just what African-America women should try to achieve in order to be labeled as pretty, beautiful or attractive when it is hard enough trying to figure out your own identity or who you want to become. They also highlighted Maya Angelou's poem "Phenomenal Women."(Link to the poem: http://bit.ly/48ScJQ) The poem sheds light on many issues women face trying to fit the definition of beauty, which has, be defined by society. And not every woman fit that definition because not one woman is the same as the next and each one it beautiful in their own unique way. Generally speaking, what society decides as beautiful or the "norm" is realistically untamable because not one person fits in to this said box nor do many people what others to dictate what they should look like or do in order to be whatever it is that society wants. Finally, the group showed a YouTube video by Indie Arie's song called "I Am Not My Hair." (http://bit.ly/8o739D) It is a biographical song about what she went through with the change her hair and the finally deciding that she will not have her hair control or dictate her life because beauty or who a person really is more than their outward appears. Interesting enough when I was search for her there was a link to her song and it features Akon another featuring Pink. I can tell you my opinion about each of the videos instead here is the link to Akon feature: http://bit.ly/4OAe9g  and the link to Pink feature: http://bit.ly/lTJji  you can draw your own conclusions.