Aesthetics is political: the March of Curly Empowerment of Salvador
Empowerment. Black Aesthetics. Curly hair. Identity. Cyberactivism
This dissertation started from reflections on the affirmation of black aesthetics through hair, defined here as curly empowerment, based on the Black Feminist Theory. In this text I set out to study research I set out to understand the resistance to the Brazilian beauty standard, through the use of curly hair and the capillary transition process, as a way of empowering black women. To this end, a study was carried out on the March of Salvador's Crespo Empowerment, between 2018 and 2019, with the objective of understand how the March articulates aesthetics, politics and black identity, including the speeches and representations of its political project. In this sense, we developed a bibliographic survey of the productions on identity, black aesthetics and curly hair, at the same time that we bring a historical approach to the events that occurred around the March, since its emergence, in 2015, until the present moment, collecting data through social networks and journalistic articles, in addition to conducting structured interviews with the four main organizers of the March. As a result, we understand the relevance of the aesthetic / political movement that brings together several generations and political flags linked to the struggles of the black population, acting in an intersectional manner in welcoming, empowering and emancipating this population. We also identified the relevance of Cyberactivism, in the dissemination of events that involve the March, as well as the importance of the activities of the March organizers, as active members in the Black Women Movement and in the anti-racist struggle in Salvador.