If Hair Is Nappy, Whites Are Not Happy: Representations of Black Hair in Haifaa al-Mansour’s Nappily Ever After

Abstract

[eng] Eurocentric beauty standards limit and shape black people’s lives and attitudes toward identity. Accordingly, most of black women feel threatened, marginalised, or mistreated due to their hair style and skin. In Nappily Ever After (al-Mansour 2018), racism, white beauty standards and negative traditions are represented in the hair of the protagonist, Violet Jones. From the point of view of intersectional approach, the aim of this dissertation is to analyse the different representations of hair in Nappily Ever After and how these representations characterise and limit the protagonist’s life, actions and her attitude towards blackness and black identity. The present analysis demonstrates that the changes that Violet’s hair suffer are the results of patriarchal society impositions over black women, and that they shape her life. Besides, it is debated whether this film could be considered a romantic comedy or not, and which elements belong to this cinematographic genre to determine if this film challenges the traditional conception of romantic comedies.