African Americans, with their traditionally African features have always had an uneasy coexistence with the European (white) ideal of beauty. Angela Neal and Midge Wilson argues that "compared to black males, black females have been more profoundly affected by the prejudicial fallout surrounding issues of skin color, facial features, and hair. Such impact can be attributed in large part to the importance of physical attractiveness for all women" (328). Hair is the most easily controlled feature for black women. Contemporary black women sometimes opt for cosmetic surgery or colored contact lenses, hair alteration (e.g. hair extension, weaves, hair straightening, etc.). This remains the most popular way to approximate a white female standard of beauty. Neal and Wilson also argue that much of the black women's "obsession about skin color and features has to do with the black woman's attempting to attain a high desirability stemming from her physical similarity to the white standard of beauty" (328).
             The main question is, who do the females try to attract by attaining this "high desirability"? Is the choice of one's hairstyle a way to signify one's alliance or even opposition to white supremacy or is it that if a black person straightens their hair it is just a way for them to fit into an overall white standard of beauty. A major issue is that one may overlook what black male expectations are when it comes to the black female hairstyles. A lot of females chooses their hairstyle by the male's expectations and likes rather than their own likes.
             In some of Zora Neale Hurston's works, she engages the black females struggle between her own hairstyle preferences and the female hairstyle preferences of the black male. She offers not only the black females encounters with the white-female standard of beauty, but also the black females difficulties negotiating her black-male partner&a...