nappy thoughts on the beheld

photo: courtesy of The Beheld

I've been a fan of Autumn Whitefield-Madrano, and her blog, The Beheld, where concepts of beauty are examined in myriad ways, for quite some time now.  So when she asked me if I would be interested in writing a piece on the word nappy, for her Thoughts on a Word series, I needed to stop, and breeaaaathe before answering, so as to form proper sentences.  ("Wait-what?! Stop it right now! Are you kidding me?! Yes! Yes! Yeessss!", wouldn't do.)

Well, the piece went live today (!!!) and it goes a little something like this:

"Nappy is, at the very least, to be handled with caution. It may mean diaper in some parts of the world, but that’s not the case at all, in these our United States of America. Here, nappy is combustible. Not everyone can say it and come away unscathed. Say it to, or even just near, the wrong person and it might just blow up in your face. In 2007, shock jock Don Imus found that out, and reminded us all about it, when he called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “some nappy-headed hoes.” The firestorm that ensued left him jobless in its wake. At the time, Lanita Jacobs-Huey, an associate professor of anthropology and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, expressed a view common among many African-Americans when she said, “When I hear it from someone who doesn’t understand the depth of pain, they just don’t have the right to say it.” See, nappy is a huge snag in the idea that we live in a post-racial society, because in large parts of the African-American community, nappy is a deep, deep wound rooted in slavery and Jim Crow" (...continue reading at The Beheld)

There's nothing quite like writing that inspires, and there's plenty of that at The Beheld, so I'm honored to see my work on the site, and doing inner cartwheels as a result.  If you have yet to check it out, do yourself the favor of running clicking over there right now.  Also, see The Beheld syndicated on The New Inquiry.  Comment, share, follow, like (if you do), tell a friend, and do let me know what you think...

no mirror? for a whole month?!

photo: getty images

Writer Autumn Whitefield-Madrano, who blogs at The Beheld, has decided to do away with the mirrors in her life for an entire month.  You heard/read me.  I ... She said one month with no mirrors.  I have to admit, an idea like that has never even whispered in my direction, so I was fascinated when I came across the story on Clutch recently. 

Whitefield-Madrano's inspiration came from the "uncomfortable recognition" she had while reading the following quote, from John Berger's Ways of Seeing:

 "A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. Whilst she is walking across a room or whilst she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping. … And so she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed within her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman. … Thus she turns herself into an object—and most particularly an object of vision: a sight."

In preparation for the experiment, which she started on the 1st of this month, Whitefield-Madrano has covered up her bathroom mirror; her windows will either be open or covered with closed blinds, and any accidental meeting with her reflection throughout her days (shop windows, other peoples' homes, etc...) will be met with a swift turn of her head in the other direction.  The only exception she'll make will be a small mirror she'll use to apply color (makeup) products. She wants her experiment to be about all the time she spends looking into mirrors for no practical reason (don't we all, especially without even realizing it?), and what happens with that time when the mirrors are taken away.  She writes:

"There’s nothing wrong with looking in the mirror. There’s nothing wrong with sometimes looking to your reflection—even when it is impossibly subjective, and backward at that—for a breath of fortitude, centeredness, and assurance. I just want to see what life is like when I’m not using that image as my anchor; I want to see how it affects the way I move through the world, the way I regard myself and others. I want to know what it’s like to sever a primary tie to one of my greatest personal flaws—extraordinary self-consciousness—and I want to discover what will fill the space that the mirror has occupied until now." (The Beheld)

I don't know if I've ever loved an idea so much, while at the same time feeling like I wouldn't even know how to begin to try it.  I mean, just thinking about the covered up bathroom mirror gave me a little anxiety, and I don't consider myself especially vain.  So while, I may not have Whitefield-Madrano's gumption, I am a huge fan of her May mirrorlessness (try saying that 5 times, fast).

What about you?  Could you live without looking into a mirror for a month? a couple of days?