Nonie
This is my last post in the conversation.
Oh well, then I guess any questions I might have can be considered rhetoric.
Please don't attempt to make me look like some "elitist" expecting perfection from everyone. This thread asked for an opinion on the matter. I gave one. It's based on analysis of the statement itself, not any advance knowledge of hair. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that "nappy" does not always equal "black."
You're the one calling people ignorant for picking one of the many reasons they could have nappy hair and not going into elaborate explanations. And I am sure most people know nappy doesn't equal black but nappy is one of the characteristics of a majority of black people. And if one were to list all the things that is typical of them that makes them stand out as a black person, if they pointed out their nappy hair, it'd not be the same as pointing out that they have toes or fingers--something that everyone has. It is a fact that nappy hair runs in the black race more than in any other race so it's not crazy to claim it as one of the things that identifies you as a black person if you do have it. But only ignorant people talk like that apparently, according to you. So makes you a cut above the rest of us ignorant folk.
You don't have to respond to EVERY ignorant comment thrown your way. So it wasn't like Rihanna was forced to respond to the girl and that's the only thing she could come up with. If she wanted to, she could've cited the definition of "nappy" and pointed out that the hair is not nappy at all and shut the girl down that way.
True dat: you do not have to respond to EVERY ignorant comment, and I am guessing folks in the limelight get so many thrown at them so I suspect they ignore quite a lot, and I suspect Rihanna does too. And you're right too that if Rhi wanted to, she could've cited the definition of "nappy" etc...but it seems she didn't want to do all o' dat probably because it wasn't worth her while. She gave the question the type of response she found it worthy of. Short and sweet (or dumb as has been stated, which is just the perfect response for a dumb question, as has also been stated). She didn't need to punctuate it with the b word, but again, she is a free human and she doesn't have to do what you or I feel she coulda woulda shoulda.
Also, what does "you of all people" mean?! Please explain cuz I don't think you know me to make a statement like that.
Girl, I don't need to know a person to look at their hair and have an idea what it would look like if rollerset, blowdried or pressed without a lot of glossy stuff to fake the funk. Your hair doesn't look vey different from mine and if I can picture my hair looking like Rihanna's wig unless I went all out to enhance the shine, then I darn sure can see yours looking the same. So I'm amused that you're sitting there talmbout natural-looking hair being ruggedy when your own hair might look just like that if you rollerset it and took a pic in the same setting as Rihanna did. Now if you're newly natural and haven't explored your hair enough to see its potential and shortcomings, then I can totally understand where you're coming from. But if you have, then you're fronting and that was my point: careful what you say about the image in the mirror.
So you have a problem with me calling the hair dry, but not with me calling it rough and brittle?!
The hair looks dry because it looks like the straw from a broom! It looks stiff!
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
How do you figure I had a problem with you calling the hair dry? FYI, when you're asked how do you know something, that question isn't an attack on what you said or an objection to it but rather an attempt to follow your thinking process and understand you better. Anyway I see you
finally answered the question I've been asking all along (Good grief, it's like pulling teeth!) Looks like straw from a broom, huh? LOL Interesting! As for it looking brittle? Dayumm...your eyes are good. Mine cannot gauge pliability (or absence thereof) without actually witnessing a relevant test being done. I am only able to figure out that something is brittle if I handle it and witness it break easily. That you can figure that out from just looking at a photo, does indeed put you a cut above me. Much respect!
You are the one reaching now. Because I point out that Rih's WIG looks dry, all of a sudden I'm saying you have to have shine in order to look healthy?! Please, get out of here with puttin words in people's mouths. We're adults. The comment had nothing to do with shine. I didn't even use the word. Dry and dull are two different things. No one said anything about having a glossy wig, flowing, or "blinging."
LOL, la communication n'est pas facile avec certaines personnes! I said Rhi's hair looks like some 4B hair looks when straightened. You then came back with something about Mwedzi's straightened hair being 4B and that it is healthy. The only difference
I could see between the two besides a difference in length, is that in the recent straightening pics of Mwedzi's hair by Reniece, her hair has more shine than in Rihanna's wig. Otherwise they look the same to me. So without your help contrasting the two, since you introduced the word "healthy" to hair that looks shinier, and up to NOW you had not at all explained what made you call Rhi's hair dry, I do the math and come up with healthy = shine in your eyes, because you haven't given me anything else to go by. (And I still say that absence of shine is the only way to come up with the association of a black & white photo of hair with a straw broom, coz if I look at samples of brooms, some look like healthy, just trimmed hair...but they all have one thing in common--no shine. But hey, if you say it's not shine, then it isn't. You have skills of figuring stuff out like brittleness from a photo so what do I know.)
You should really stop assuming, it doesn't benefit anyone. Maybe you have your own insecurities with your hair so you're inferring all of these generalizations from my comments. You shouldn't. It's unnecessary and it stifles REAL discussions and debates on IMPORTANT issues.
Ermm...assuming is something I try hard not to do if you're implying I've been assuming what you mean. In fact, throughout this discussion, I've asked you to elaborate your meaning, while giving my viewpoint--and I guess that's been throwing you off. As for me having insecurities about my hair?
Me? Bwahahaha! You
clearly do not know me. If there's one person who is so comfortable in her skin and fully embraces and appreciates
everything about herself (let's not stop just at hair) to the point of even deeming it worthy to help others achieve the same, it is I. And LMAO @ you assuming an authoritative tone to accuse me of stifling "REAL discussions and debates on IMPORTANT issues".
I hope someone will give me a heads up when you start discussing important issues so I can grab my pen and paper and take notes of your contributions instead of jumping in and stifling the process.
(O Wait, was this one such discussion? OMG, OMG... I hope not coz I don't have my pen! *panic galore*)
pookaloo83, I was going hard because I trust that one of those kids in kindergarten who might've bought into the BS that her hair looks ruggedy if it turned out to look like Rihanna's wig (or
nappystorm's straightened hair, per her honest admission) will someday see this thread and realize that not everyone thinks like that, and hopefully learn to appreciate and love her hair and herself the way I do mine and myself. I have already received PMs thanking me for the little positivity I've shared, so I know this is not in vain. That's why I go hard. It saddens me that kids worry about appearance so much when at their age I was busy being a kid, and developing my own tastes in things without the pressure to conform to anything. I was free to be me and so I hope I can help someone find the same peace of mind I had/have in being me, or at least plant a seed toward that goal.
Amoreofcurls When I was in boarding school, one of my BFFs and I would handwrite 20-page newsy letters to each other.
Touch typing is quicker and easier so...