Golden Girl Gabby

Gabby Douglas just became the first African-American woman to earn the Olympic gold in both individual and all around gymnastic events. The sixteen-year-old is, like anyone who gets to the Olympics, an inspiring story of hard work and dedication. Yet there are some who are more than a little preoccupied with her hair. Her hair. Really.

I had a dream last night which starred a person who used to make me feel bad about myself. I gave him both the permission and the power to do so. The dream was vivid enough that when I awoke this morning, I had those old sad and bad feelings that used to be a part of my everyday life. I've had my coffee, which always makes me feel better. Reality has set in, my reality that I don't live that way anymore, and that the one who used to have so much power over how I felt about myself is now, just somebody that I used to know.

I love my hair. My straight white woman hair. It is healthy and strong. I have been a brunette, which is what I am naturally, a blonde and a redhead, and right now I am all three of those things rolled into one. I've had hair almost to my waist, super short and everything in between. I don't know if I will ever let it go completely gray, but both my mother and my maternal grandmother had beautiful silver hair, so maybe one day in the far distant future. I used to have this ongoing battle with my hair. I got the idea when I was a young girl that there was something wrong with straight hair, and there were days I stood in front of the mirror in the morning trying to make my hair do things it didn't want to do. I have a cowlick in the front, and one at the crown. I remember the day I decided to just allow my hair to do what I wanted it to do, and I asked my hair stylist what kind of cut would work, and the rest is history. That was when I began to love my hair, which led to my eventually loving all the parts of myself, which makes what I experienced last night nothing but a bad dream.

The hair industry in our country is big business, with a vested interest in keeping us feeling bad about ourselves so we will spend more money. Our hair isn't thick enough or thin enough or straight enough or curly enough or shiny enough or long enough. Enough is enough.

The hair of African American women is even more complicated, with messages being sent that they must have it straightened to look professional or polished which is just shorthand for look more like white woman hair. Really.

Of course, hair has its importance. It is a woman's crowning glory and all that. But it is a trivial matter, or it should be, in the grand scheme of things. We women who should be supporting Douglas, who should be applauding her accomplishments, who should feel inspired by her, we are the ones who are talking about her hair. It's not the MEN. It's us. For all the advancements we females have made over the years, we still continue to hold ourselves back with our strange preoccupation with how we look, with our cattiness and meanness toward one another. We are sisters, every one of us who is female on this planet.

Gabby Douglas is beautiful, inside and out. She must be a young woman with an unusual amount of gumption to get to where she is today, and she certainly needs it to rise above the pettiness of those who are preoccupied with her hair. Her hair. Really.

Susan