Mulheres negras de raiz: experiências racializadas e generificadas no processo da transição capilar

Abstract

This thesis analyzed the re-updating of personal and political expressions of black women who went through the process of hair transitioning, taking as a transversal point the problematization of the categories gender, race and empowerment, present in the narrative of this group. The research proposed to investigate the new agency of the self-narratives in their biographical and political aspects, transversalizing gender and race perspectives, facing their new forms of articulation. It discusses the ways of being and understanding oneself as a "black woman" from the capillary experience and how this relationship derives other issues related to gender and race. In other words, this work intends: 1) to understand in what way the handling of hair in transition is both narrated and operated; 2) to point out how black women operate "empowerment" in their life narratives, highlighting both biographical and political aspects; and 3) to sew knots between the autobiographical-political narratives of black women and their relationship with the categories "gender" and "race". For analysis purposes, the empirical sample was the Facebook group entitled "Curly and Curly Hair - Hair Transition". The group brings together, among other things, people who are in the process of transitioning from straightening chemicals to natural and/or curly hair. For not being reduced to discussions about hair quality and hair handling techniques, but extending it to ethnic debates inherent to AfroBrazilian traits, the group configures itself as a producer of a propitious field to discuss the issues raised. The analysis of the material was carried out from the articulation between Netnography, Critical Discourse Analysis and PhotoNarrative Workshops. As results, the research allowed for the understanding of the subtleties of the racist and sexist structure of society that directly affects racialized women who have submitted throughout their lives to numerous processes of hair straightening as a result of the lack of black references in which they could mirror and celebrate their natural curly hair. In addition, it helped to unveil the political character of the assumption of natural and frizzy threads, as a movement to regain identity and build a hitherto neglected ethnic belonging, throughout the life history of the participants. Finally, through this study, we hope to contribute to the racial and gender discussion, which connects in many ways to the reality of the women participating in this research and those who identify with them, not only in the academic field, but especially within everyday spaces, in order to reflect such discussions by promoting the displacements and inquiries about their relationship with hair.