A reflection written by Women’s Center staff member, MJ Jalloh Jamboria

Beyoncé’s newest hit, “Formation” has been the topic of conversation everywhere. If you missed the video, here it is!

Since her Super Bowl performance on February 7th, Beyoncé has received mountains of praise and criticism for her performance and newest video. (Also, take a second to watch the Super Bowl performance here if you haven’t already. Ready? OK!)

While surfing Twitter during the Super Bowl performance (obviously not as Bey was singing), I came across a tweet that angered me to my very core. In efforts to find the original tweet, I came up empty handed, so instead I’ll summarize. The author of the tweet expressed anger at the hairstyle Beyoncé chose to rock for her Super Bowl performance, specifically the color and texture of her weave.

Credit: Getty Images

Their ire was grounded in the fact that Beyoncé’s weave wasn’t aligned with the pro-blackness and importance of self-identity portrayed within her video.

Trying to isolate my frustration with the tweet, I found myself asking (and later dissecting) the following questions:

• Why are people focusing on her hair style?
• Why is wavy, blonde hair considered anti-black and indicative of self-hate?? 

First of all, weaves are not always indicative of hatred of one’s own natural hair! Beyoncé, and black women everywhere, are entitled to having and wearing the hairstyles that express themselves or the person they choose to personify. Seemingly, the choice to wear her hair long, blonde and wavy (as opposed to in an afro, like her performers) was a PERSONAL CHOICE (or between herself and her stylist). It seemed as if the author of the tweet thought Beyonce’s lack of afro or other natural hairstyle was a rejection of blackness. The idea that Black women should stick to a limited number of styles to be considered beautiful or “black enough” is ridiculous! Second, long blonde hair does not belong to one racial or ethnic group.

At first, I was upset that people weren’t paying attention to the positive messages in her song, video and performance. For example, her section of the Super Bowl performance paid homage to Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party and Michael Jackson. Similarly, the “Formation” video recreates and depicts the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and begins to challenge and shed light on larger systems of police brutality and anti-blackness.

Perhaps I was even upset that people were attacking my beloved queen.

Me @ the mere mention of Beyonce

But again, I realized I needed to think more critically about black hair politics. Too often have I heard the ways in which artificial relaxers and perms kits ruined the naturally bodacious curl patterns and beautifully kinky hair of young girls and women alike. In fact, I lived it. I lived through hot combs and suffered the consequences of rocking baby hairs before they were a trend. I vividly remember crying every time my hair was subjected to being plaited into neat cornrows, through tears asking my mom why my hair couldn’t be straight like the other pretty (white) girls at school.

Without fully knowing it, at an early age I understood the ways in which hair was racially coded and tied to constricting beauty standards for women. Looking back, I was beginning to see the possible reasons as to why the author of the tweet may have felt betrayed by Beyoncé’s selection of hairstyle.

I wanted to continue to reflect on the policing of Black women’s hair and beauty standards and I remembered the recent controversy over military bans on specific hairstyles. Initial restrictions banned many types of hairstyles (including locs and two-strand twists) but restrictions were later dialed back to allow two-strand twists as a permissible style. The thought of an institution banning something as arbitrary as hair seemed bizarre but I understood this was just another way of constricting black and female autonomy and categorizing good versus bad, acceptable versus rejected, manageable versus kinky.

However, the “Formation” video, the Super Bowl performance, and Beyoncé’s lyrics highlight some amazing things as well. One of the lines from “Formation” is “I like my baby hair with baby hair and afro’s.”

Remember that time there was a petition to have Blue’s parents change her hair? No? Revisit that awful moment in history HERE.

Not only did Beyoncé feature her daughter in the video, she acknowledged the texture of Blue Ivy’s hair, and featured her beside two other beautiful children with similarly curly hair. Her video also features women of different hairstyles and Beyoncé herself switches between a plethora of hairstyles. Her video highlights just a few of the ways in which black hair is versatile and beautiful.

In a society where women, specifically black women, aren’t always taught to value their features and beauty, but instead alter and damage their natural beauty, I feel Beyoncé, her video, and her performance continued to allow for necessary and important discourse on black hair.

A resource round-up provided by Women’s Center staff member, Meagé Clements

In case you missed yesterday’s roundtable on Black Trauma and Mental Health (or if you were there and want to keep the conversation going), I thought it might be useful to share some resources that have helped me, as a Black woman, deal with my own experiences of Black trauma. It’s hard to summarize everything that was discussed; however much of the discussion revolved around the problematic “Strong Black Woman” stereotype. We also discussed the experiences of tokenization, involuntary (or feeling it necessary to have to be the) spokesperson in class, and microagressions. Black trauma isn’t just one kind of experience, and certainly isn’t only what is captured by the media. Rather it is a daily and ongoing experience – much like a death by a 1000 cuts. Below are just a few resources I’ve found helpful in learning that I, too, can be strong AND vulnerable.

The poem Dr. Jasmine Abrams shared: The Strong Black Woman is Dead

Dr. Abrams kicked off the discussion by asking us to close our eyes as she read the poem, “The Strong Black Woman is Dead”

News Outlets and Blogs:

NPR: Codeswitch – Frontiers of Race, Culture, and Ethnicity

“Code Switch is a team of seven NPR journalists who cover race, ethnicity and culture. Our work appears on-air and online, across NPR’s shows and digital outlets. We produce this blog, a Tumblr, a Twitter stream, and a Facebook feed.”

• Coping While Black: A Season of Traumatic News Takes A Psychological Toll
• How Black Reporters Report on Black Death
• Ta-Nehisi Coates Looks At The Physical Toll of Being Black in America

For Harriet – Celebrating the Fullness of Black Womanhood

“For Harriet is an online community for women of African ancestry. We encourage women, through storytelling and journalism, to engage in candid, revelatory dialogue about the beauty and complexity of Black womanhood. We aspire to educate, inspire, and entertain.”

@ForHarriet on Twitter | forharriet on Facebook

• Why We Must Finally Pay Attention to Black Women’s Mental Health
• Facing Black Mental Health

Black Girl Dangerous – Amplifying the Voices of Queer and Trans People of Color

“BGD seeks to, in as many ways as possible, amplify the voices, experiences and expressions of queer and trans people of color… BGD is a place where we can make our voices heard on the issues that interest us and affect us, where we can showcase our literary and artistic talents, where we can cry it out, and where we can explore and express our “dangerous” sides: our biggest, boldest, craziest, weirdest, wildest selves.”

• “We Are Not All Strong Black Women”
• “Got Anxiety or Mental Distress? Me, too. Here’s How We Can All Support Each Other”

Articles and Books on the subject:

Between the World and Me
Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting
Racial Bias in Perceptions of Others’ Pain
I Don’t Feel Your Pain – A Failure of Empathy Perpetuates Racial Disparities
‘I Can’t Breath’: African-Americans, Race Trauma, and PTSD
Dark Times Under the Radar: Black Women and Mental Illness
Racism’s Psychological Toll

On-campus resources:

UMBC Counseling Center
Women of Color Coalition
Critical Social Justice (October 2016)

Thanks to our panel members for sharing their experiences related to mental health and black trauma. Pictured left to right: Dr. Jasmine Abrams, Brianna Jackson, Dr. Tammy Henderson, & Donna-Lee Mahabeer

Read More from Other Roundtable Roundups:
White Womanhood + Critical Whiteness Resources Round-Up (September 2015)

 by Shira Devorah, student staff at the Women’s Center (she/her) 

Every student has their personal struggles that make being in college difficult – responsibilities and personal needs to attend to while also working towards a degree. Like many other students, I also face mental illness on top of every other responsibility.

This is probably one of the more pleasant stock photos I found when searching for “mental illness.” Get on that, photo people….

I struggle with major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and ADHD. These diagnoses do not define me, but they do tend to get in the way of my school day. Sometimes classes have to be skipped, assignments need to be pushed back and plans must be cancelled, all in the name of mental health.

Beyonce from her music video “Flawless,” which inspired the hashtag #wokeuplikethis (screen capture)

As a woman with depression, I can’t always look happy for the sake of making someone else feel good, as stereotypical female empathy demands of me. I will not seem ‘flawless’ because sometimes I can’t remember to eat, let alone put on lipstick. I cannot be around people for an extended period of time without being exhausted. I am no less woman than someone without depression, but I have to work harder to be accepted by a sexist world as worthy of the title “woman.” This pressure is made more difficult when you factor in the fact that I am a full time student. I am expected as a student to do my best and succeed while also fitting into the tiny box of “womanness.”

Society presents a very limited definition for what a woman is “supposed” to be and look like and these strict gender roles rarely fit the dynamic and complex individuals we are, but they are even more inadequate for people of color, LGBTQIA-identified people, and people with mental illness and/or disabilities. Women students who navigate life with a mental illness have to deal with often unachievable standards, including the expectation of “effortless perfection.” 

As a woman with mental illness, I have to work twice as hard to just appear “normal.” Putting on clothes, taking showers, eating enough, getting from point A to point B — these everyday activities can completely consume my time and energy. While the mere concept of normal is problematic, it is further complicated by the fact that I have to conform to the standards of being normal and a woman.  Why do I have to go through the day existing as if I do not have a mental disability while also pretending that being a woman is effortless and easy? I don’t function in the normative ways that society demands of me. If I don’t look a certain way or act a certain way, am I not only less “normal,” but also less “woman?”  Is normal just a synonym for being unobtrusive and invisible in my disabilities?

Are you sick? Tired? Hunover? Nope, just not wearing makeup. (credit: AlexandraDal.deviantart.com)

People often forget that looking the way society demands women to look takes a ton of effort. Being unwilling or unable to meet society’s expectations of femininity and beauty should not be seen as a failure or a sign that something is wrong.

The truth is, no one should have to fit into a category to be valid. You are a woman if you feel like a woman. Period. Amen. You don’t have to be hairless or made up or a certain size or have/not have certain body parts. You don’t need to have a healthy, thriving mind in order to be yourself. You just need to feel like a woman and that alone is enough to make you one.

I feel very lucky to be part of the Gender and Women’s Studies department, where we deconstruct these notions of gendered stereotypes and unfair expectations placed upon certain people. I have been taught in my studies to harness my uniqueness in order to subvert the expectations that a hegemonic world places upon me. 

(Not actually what your RX bottle looks like if you get your meds at Target)

I do not apologize for my mental illnesses, and I am not quiet about them. I will tell anyone who will listen about my depression and anxiety. I will pop my Paxil or Ativan in the middle of class if I need it, and I will not bother to explain why I carry my prescriptions with me always. Personally, I choose to be open about my illnesses in hopes that discussions will cultivate a culture of understanding. I want to make my mental illnesses more visible to counter the idea that mental illnesses are inherently “bad” or not worth discussing.

Still, a lot of women with mental illnesses do not want to be subversive; they just want to be understood and included. These women do not owe the world their stories and still always deserve support. I have linked an article by Jess Myers, the director of the Women’s Center, if you want to read more about supporting people without knowing their story.

I am using this blog post to carve out a space to appreciate women who are also students with mental illnesses. You can have a diagnosis or you can just be realizing your illness. You can be medicated, in therapy, or not doing anything at all, and you are still valid. You can have accommodations, be a straight-A student, or be failing a course, and you still matter as a woman, as a person, and as a student. Mental illness is just one factor that in no way defines you.

It’s okay to not be okay all the time. (credit: Gunshow by KC Green)

We as students need to support each other and be mindful of the intersecting issues that our classmates face. Supporting someone with a mental illness can be challenging at times, but it can also be as easy as asking how somebody is. Maybe send a text asking your friend if she is doing alright. Or schedule a dinner with someone you know is going through a hard time. You could even offer to walk your classmate over to the Counseling Center if they need more professional help.

There are so many little things that we as peers and friends can do to help support each other and it can start with creating spaces where we feel like we don’t have to pretend to always be perfect. 

The Dresher Center invites applications for new Faculty Working Groups in the Humanities. Faculty Working Groups are collaborative, interdisciplinary communities of scholars working on humanities projects, research concerns, or matters of public interest. The Dresher Center provides support for the formation and first-year activities of these groups in an effort to promote intellectual exchange and support research activities in the humanities among scholars across campus. Working groups meet regularly and may also use their funds to travel to sites or archives, host speakers, explore technologies, create new resources or materials, or other similar activities.

 Faculty Working Groups can apply for up to $1,000 in annual support ($500 per semester) for their first-year activities. Priority will be given to groups with at least one member from a humanities department.

Apply by April 1, 2016 for groups beginning or continuing in fall 2016. 

To download an application and to find out about current Faculty Working Groups, visit: http://dreshercenter.umbc.edu/scholarly-resources/faculty-working-groups-in-the-humanities/ 

Contact for questions: Jessica Berman (jberman@umbc.edu), Director, or Rachel Brubaker (rbruba1@umbc.edu), Assistant Director

The Women’s Center Advisory Board is a collective of faculty, staff, and students with an interest in supporting and cultivating the work of the Women’s Center at UMBC and advancing gender equity and social justice on UMBC’s campus.

Board members participate in monthly board meetings, scheduled for the first Friday of each month during the academic year. This forum allows Women’s Center staff to share information about the Center and similarly allows the board members to share their knowledge, wisdom and unique perspectives to advance the mission of the Women’s Center. 

In addition to advising the Director and Assistant Director of the Women’s Center, board members provide support in the planning, programming, and advocacy of the Women’s Center. Board members are encouraged to attend Women’s Center events when possible and volunteer at larger events such as Critical Social Justice or the returning women students networking event. These responsibilities may entail additional hours of commitment outside of the monthly board meetings.

Board members are appointed for two-year terms, with the possibility of renewal.

The Women’s Center seeks to serve a diverse community of people interested in women’s, gender, and social justice issues.  We seek a diverse board to assure that varying needs and interests are represented.
For more on the Women’s Center mission, guiding principles, and priorities, visit womenscenter.umbc.edu

DEADLINE: Monday, April 24, 2017

For additional information, please call the Women’s Center at x52714 or email womens.center@umbc.edu. 

All Are Welcome So Long As They Respect Women’s Experiences, Stories & Potential