by Tracey Wallace The natural hair community is getting stronger by the day here in the U.S., but that isn’t the case for the rest of the world. In Brazil, the home of the Brazilian Blow Out treatment that uses formaldehyde to straighten tight curls and coils, the pressure to straighten begins very young. Much like the stories that comes…
by Marques Travae of Black Women of Brazil Note from Black Women of Brazil: Today’s post is really part of the reason for the Black Women of Brazil blog in the first place – the exchange of black experiences across the African Diaspora. It comes courtesy of Amanda Gil of the Belo Crespo Facebook page and the Afrokut blog…
by Marques Travae of Black Women of Brazil Sign: “eu preciso de Cadiveu (I need Cadiveu)” In several of our blog posts over the past 14 months, we have given consistent examples of how the aesthetic and image of the black woman is overwhelmingly devalued in Brazil. From outrageous song lyrics that denigrate physical attributes of black women, media ads…
by Marques of BlackWomenOfBrazil Gone are days when kinky/curly hair was synonymous with mistreated and laborious hair. Nowadays in Brazil, kinky/curly hair is increasingly associated with self-assertion, self-esteem, behavior and femininity. Mirella Santos Globalization and democratization of the media has greatly increased the speed of information. This is not just a fad, but trends and intervals increasingly shorter. A black…
by Marques Travae of Black Women of Brazil Nega Gizza, the Hip Hop moniker of Gisele Gomes de Souza, is a rapper from Rio de Janeiro. The child of a maid, at seven years old, she sold beer and pop with her siblings in downtown Rio. She dropped out of school in the 7th grade and while she dreamed of…