Gender, Authenticity, and Hair in African American Stand-up Comedy
Gender, Authenticity, and Hair in African American Stand-up Comedy
This chapter looks beyond the contexts of hair-care practice among African American women to consider narrative performances about hair in black comedy clubs. Black stand-up comedy is an especially fitting stage for examining the cultural and gender implications of Black hair, for the subject routinely emerges in black humor. Jokes about hair often rely on the audience's shared cultural knowledge and experiences with black hair textures, styles, procedures, and terminology. African American comics exploit this in-group knowledge through embodied and highly gendered humor that plays on cultural discourse styles, innuendo, and comedic strategy. In doing so, they expand current understandings of how and why hair matters in African American women's and men's everyday lives.
Keywords: hair-care practice, African American women, stand-up comedy, narrative performances, black comedy clubs, Black hair, black humor
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