Why Don’t They Like My Hair?

Why Don’t They Like My Hair?

This video essay examines the impact of hair discrimination among an Afrodescent male who simultaneously struggles to embrace his hair texture while rejecting his natural hair pattern through the analysis of two films: Pelo Malo and Good Hair. Both films provide an understanding of gender stereotypes, societal norms and familial pressures while demonstrating how people around the world assimilate to beauty standards. This research helps facilitate a greater understanding of societal beauty standards in Venezuela—the setting in which Pelo Malo highlights the complexity of the word beauty. The standing literature indicates Venezuela’s long standing beauty standards mimicking those of Europe. This creates long term effects on the life trajectories of both men and women. These internalized European beauty standards have been center stage for women in Venezuela for many years, but with the help of this analysis, we shed light on how these beauty standards negatively affect men as well.