This was published in 2022, but it's still timely. Read the column here.
Some excerpts:
If you’ve ever watched Sanders you see that she is dynamic, exudes confidence, and embraces her baldness—which is something that any bald woman will tell you can sometimes be hard to do. The patriarchy’s views on how women should be wearing their hair are firmly entrenched in American society, and broadening Americans’ horizons on the many ways women can be beautiful, professional, and authoritative is going to take some time.
“I'm a bald, curvy, Black woman from North Omaha, Nebraska, with a bedazzled nail, and I like a bold lip—and that's what I'm going to continue to be,” said Sanders in a recent BET interview.
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Thankfully, Sanders is rewriting the script (literally) and refusing to allow stereotypes of being a bald Black woman keep her from accomplishing her dreams. “My hope is that me showing up every day as my authentic self, continuing to keep the bar high and substantive, not [as] a caricature of what people think I am, but truly just being myself—is opening up the door for other young people to step into their respective workplaces, wherever they are, and be comfortable with who they are,” said Sanders to BET. Like Sanders, I have always felt empowered, beautiful, and on top of the world as a bald Black woman. But many other bald Black women could still use the confidence boost, to let them know that they are truly enough.
For those of us who are already there, we’ll continue to showcase how being a bald woman is fierce—and something that you have to “own” proudly, regardless of the negative and harmful rhetoric that has been put upon us.
