Flavor of Friday: Curlism & the Natural Hair "Movement"

Nope, you're not the only one who didn't realize 'curlism' was an actual word. I too was in the dark about the bitter controversy over what people are calling the natural hair "movement". Let me first declare that I, for one, didn't decide to let go of my relaxed hair back in 2006 because of any kind of movement going on. I did it because I joined an African dance troupe (shoutout to African Rhythms at UPENN) in college, had rigorous dance practice on a regular basis and couldn't deal with maintaining straight hair at Philly hairstylist prices.

Me, circa 2006 (First time natural since childhood)

 Anyway, fast forward 5 years later and everywhere you turn there are girls chopping off their relaxers and rocking their curls. Hell, even I decided (after regretfully relaxing it last year) to chop mine off again and start from scratch. I think it's great that there are so many resources out there now for people who want to do it. But I didn't realize there were SO many strong viewpoints about who could "rightfully" participate in this movement. Well, one of my fave Youtube vloggers Taren916 decided to make a thought-provoking video about the controversy. After a few followers told Taren she couldn't rightfully be part of the "movement" because she's of mixed race and has loose curls, she sounded off with her opinions:

I thought this was interesting to highlight because I know for a fact that you guys are a mixed audience. I'm grateful to have all of you as faithful blog readers - from dark & curly haired gals to blond bombshells with bone straight hair. And I'm curious to know your opinion on this. Should there be such a thing as CURL-ism? Like racism, it separates people based on a physical feature - the texture, shape and size of their CURLS. Can't we all just get along?