 |
 |
New Book Announcement
Feminist Interrogations of Women's Head Hair: Crown of Glory and Shame
edited by Sigal Barak-Brandes & Amit Kama (2018). Routledge.
Hair constitutes a neglected means of symbolic communication: it relays vital information about one's identity, taste, and status. Cultures, societies, and religions ascribe certain modes of hair styling and shearing. Hair is thus a construct of cultural and social dictates. This is particularly pertinent to women and girls whose hair is considered to be both a source and an expression of glory and shame. Feminist Interrogations of Women's Head Hair: Crown of Glory and Shame brings new focus to this underrepresented topic through its intersections with contemporary socio-cultural contexts within the larger frame of feminist scholarship.
The anthology contains chapters by scholars from a wide range of disciplines who investigate private and public meanings associated with female head hair, problematizing our assumptions about its role and implications in the 21st Century. Readers are invited to reflect on the use of hair in popular culture, such as children’s television and pop album artwork, as well as in work by women artists. Studies examine the lived experiences of women from a range of backgrounds and histories, including curly-haired women in Israel, African American women during the American Civil Rights Movements and self-identified lesbians in France. Other essays interrogate the connotations of women’s head hair in relation to body image, religion and aging.
Feminist Interrogations of Women's Head Hair: Crown of Glory and Shame brings together cultural discourses and the lived experiences of women, across time and place, to reveal the complex and ever-evolving significance of women's hair. It is an important contribution to the critical feminist thought in media studies, fashion studies, African American studies, queer theory, gender studies, gerontology, and cultural studies.
Sigal Barak-Brandes, PhD, is a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Amit Kama, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Communication, Yezreel Valley Academic College, Israel.
The BSA Gender Study Group mailing list is for the exchange of ideas and information related to any aspect of Gender Studies and scholarship. We do not undertake editorial control of postings; viewpoints and information posted to the list do not necessarily represent the views of the convenors or association. We encourage respectful communication on the list and ask that questions related to specific postings be directed to the appropriate party.