Sunday, July 26, 2009
More commercials I can't stand: KGB tackles nappy-headed hoes
1 comments
Renee of Womanist Musings is less than pleased with this KGB commercial, and rightfully so.
She writes:
I have to agree. This ad blatantly invokes the stereotypes of black women in beauty shops, getting weaves and ending every sentence with, "Guuuuuurl, please!" It paints them out to be ignorant airheads who need advice from the intelligent white people to survive. I find this commercial extremely tasteless, to say the least. What does everyone else think?
She writes:
I suppose it's all good fun to laugh at the lengths that Black women must go to train our hair into submission because we live in a culture that has constructed nappy hair as uncouth or wrong...Looking at this commercial only reifies the ways in which Whiteness is more than content to remain ignorant. In fact, it symbolizes just another attempt to portray Black women as uncouth and bestial in their attempts to covet Whiteness. Yep, just look at the ignorant Blacks putting yak hair in their head.
I have to agree. This ad blatantly invokes the stereotypes of black women in beauty shops, getting weaves and ending every sentence with, "Guuuuuurl, please!" It paints them out to be ignorant airheads who need advice from the intelligent white people to survive. I find this commercial extremely tasteless, to say the least. What does everyone else think?
Posts
July 30, 2009 at 3:02 AM
While I agree with your concerns about the not-so-latent racism in this ad, I do think that it brings up the real issue of where the hair for extensions and wigs comes from. For KGB to get it so wrong is surprising if they're supposed to be a fact-checking service. All people who wear wigs, weaves and extensions, whether they're black or white, should be aware that the majority of the real hair used is actually from women in India, China and Russia, and they're not always fairly paid to cut off their locks. Have a look at this article from the UK newspaper The Guardian and scroll down to the bottom: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/28/sperm-egg-donors