As I have said before on here, I personally support people of all colors, genders and non-genders cosplaying as any Night Vale characters they want. We may not agree with this, and that is absolutely okay; it doesn’t change my opinion whatsoever. That said, I am getting really sick of people trying to claim that “natural hair” is a description used by and for white people. Are you high?
ARE
YOU
HIGH?
The only time the word “natural” comes into context when white people refer to their hair is when talking about the color, and in those cases they say “That is my natural hair color”, or “Her color is natural”. You may not see the difference between those combination of words compared with “natural hair”, but let me tell you something; language is important, and it is an absolute identifier for what demographic of people are being referred to. I spent a big chunk of my life unfortunately wishing that I was white, and in those years of my life, when I gave my hair a little break from the life-sucking straightening processes I subjected it to, people would ask about my curls and I would say “it is naturally curly”. The operative word here being CURLY. Black people do not refer to their hair as curly in such a way, probably because the majority of black people have textured curls when their hair has been left to battle the elements on it’s on; black people saying their hair is curly is not a signifier because pretty much all black people have curly hair. Once I left Alabama and realized that being black wasn’t a curse in other parts of the country, I constructed a better understanding of myself, one filled with pride for who I was and regret for not having recognized it earlier, and with this came a change in language; I no longer had “naturally curly hair”, but rather, I had “natural hair”. To further prove my point, my mother, a white woman, was a cosmetologist when I was growing up, known well in some circles for her ability to do white hair and black hair with equal skill. Never, EVER, did she or any white people who’s hair she serviced refer to themselves as having “natural hair”.
Still don’t believe me? GOOGLE “natural hair” and tell me what you see. You are gonna see hundred of photos of women with curls, braids, short hair, long hair, twists, kinks, locks, and the like. All of those women will be black. All of them.
If you are white, you should be able to cosplay POC characters from WTNV just as POC people should be able to cosplay any goddamn character that they want even if the character is not specified as POC, and all of you should be able to do that without judgement or vitriol or criticism from anyone else.
BUT.
If you are white and are cosplaying as Dana, you better recognize her origin! Recognize her power as a woman of color! Be thankful that such a wonderful character was written and be thankful that she is brown and be thankful you get to be her for a little while! Be honored to have the chance to play such a great brown female hero! Don’t try and erase what she looks like to make yourself feel less guilty about playing her; PRAISE HER. SEE HER. Don’t do that shit in blackface. But ELEVATE HER! Let the world know, I am playing this awesome character who is a woman of color, and while I am not a woman of color, I still think I can portray all the other awesome parts of her while continuing to honor the parts of her that are not like me! Write that shit down on a HELLO MY NAME IS sticker and carry it with you if you want- whatever it takes to get as much enjoyment from embodying this great character for a few hours while not erasing the miracle that she is. Don’t you see?? This is one of the reasons that Dana is so amazing- cause there are not many heroines like her!
And thus concludes my “Stop Acting Like The Phrase Natural Hair Is Coined By White People- Y’all Can’t Just Turn Facts Around To Make Them Suit Your Needs, What Is Wrong With You? Jesus!”
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