There are times when you genuinely fear for humanity.

In this instance, a black woman is apparently accused of challenging a white male, with dreadlocks, for his choice of hairstyle. ‘It’s cultural appropriation’. Apparently.

It’s a hairstyle. It’s not something over which to fight race wars. Come to that, there’s damned little to nothing over which we should be fighting race wars. But least of all a haircut.

The (UK) media have picked up on this in a big way. The Independent reports on it, The Daily Mail reports on it, The Guardian unsurprisingly fails to comment on it.

Corey Goldstein attacked for his hairstyle

Corey Goldstein explains his position

The woman’s position is torn asunder. ‘Is this fucking Nazi Germany?’

Irish redhead appropriating a black hairstyle? Or do blacks appropriate an Irish hairstyle?

OMG!!!!! Those racist, Irish, redhead, curly-tressed people!!!!! Stealing from the culture of the girl at California State University.

A dreadlocked Shiva. Stealing from black students at San Francisco State. Obviously.

And if you think it’s just white people attacking blacks on the youtube videos…

..here’s a black guy, Sean Jackson, telling it how it is…

The SFSU student at the centre of the story. Pretty sure her hair didn’t naturally grow like this.

There is a huge amount of white on black racism that goes on in the world every day. Every day. SL Naturist has discussed this before. We loathe racism. We oppose racism. We fight against racists and a racist mindset. We’re in a Europe where ‘racism’ (more sectarianism, pitting Christianity vs Islam) is occurring every day. But, really, some idiot behaving like this, attacking some white hippy on racial grounds for his hairstyle, makes our lives so much harder.

Abigail

I’ve been researching attitudes to nudity around the world, and one of the stranger stories I came across was that of General Butt Naked, aka Joshua Milton Blahyi. In the early 1990s, in the Liberian Civil War, he became known for his atrocities, but also for the practice of having his soldiers go to war naked, the idea being that it would terrorise the enemy (and, exceptionally oddly, that being naked made them bulletproof).

He was, without doubt, evil. Since the end of that civil war he has recast himself as a pastor, and he’s been the subject of a film, The Redemption of General Butt Naked.

You can watch the full movie here…

It’s harrowing, as it really brings home the full horror of a war that utilised child soldiers.

Blahyi was a soldier serving under the equally horrendous Charles Taylor, who campaigned for the Liberian Presidency (and won) under the banner ‘he killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him’ !!

This is definitely one of the more weird aspects of nudity as a ‘weapon’.

Of course, nude protest in Africa has a long history and tradition, at least back to 1929.  and the likes of Femen utilising nude protest in recent years owes a debt to this history.

Often, it seems that the thinking behind nude protest is that it represents a curse, and that women can take life away (through the curse) as well as creating it.

Ugandan women protest against a land grab by stripping naked.

Women protest outside the ANC’s offices in South Africa

While we often think of nudity being symbolic of a form of western protests -the WNBR being a prime example- it seems that Africa also has its own unique take on nude protest.

 Some WNBR photos, protesting against oil dependency 

While WNBR is ‘fun’ to highlight a specific concern, sometimes nude protest occurs in response to serious matters, such as the murder of Mexican students last year.

Ella covered the topic of these murders in SL Naturist last year.

Trine

One of the dangers of being out in strong sunshine applies to both naturists and textiles alike. And that’s getting too much sun on the top of your head, leading to sunstroke or heatstroke. Remember: we’re often lathering ourselves in sun cream, naturist or textile, but we don’t apply any to our heads, do we? Therefore it goes unprotected, and thus we are in danger of getting more sun, on the tops of our heads, than is good for us.

Of course, heatstroke isn’t solely the result of an uncovered head, it can still occur with a head covered, but it certainly makes sense to keep your head covered if and where you can.

If you plan being out under the sun in the middle of the day, it’s worth remembering to keep your head covered, as well as reapplying sun cream.

It’s not something we often see in Second Life, of course, but perhaps there’s a place for hats in naturist sims if only to remind us of their importance in naturism, and also to just give an avatar that little unique twist.

Plausible Body has a free (pay what you like) linen hat you might like to grab, and Amiable have a lovely straw hat that Pookes blogged about last July, but which is still available.

Linen hat from Plausible Body

Straw Hat from Amiable

Other suitable hats are available on the Marketplace, with a Fedora priced at L$1, a bandana at L$10 and, of course, a beret that we blogged earlier today.

We’d also recommend visiting JFL, a store which specialises in hats. In the photo below, Howie is wearing a rather classy pork pie hat he bought there some time ago (L$150), while Pam is wearing the bandana referenced above on the MP.

Howie wears his JfL pork pie hat, while Pam models her bandana.

The grid is also awash with baseball caps. Many stores will offer a branded baseball cap as a group gift or freebie, but we picked one up on the MP for L$1.

Trine

The beret. A little bit French (although as much of a French cliche as anything else in modern times). A little bit chic. A little bit Basque. A little bit revolutionary-military.

Sandrine, replicating the real life photos directly above her

The Byrne Boutique has a free beret gift (amongst other gifts) at the moment, and if you’re inclined towards a little French chic, it’s worth hopping over there.

Catherine Deneuve

Brigitte Bardot

Anouk Aimee

 Back in the 60s, it seemed that no self-respecting French actress would be seen without a beret. And if you’re into a bit of military role-play, the Marketplace can offer you a uniform for L$1. (male version also available).

Sandrine was photographed at the Caen 1944 WW2 sim. playing the role of a French actress playing the role of a French Resistance fighter. 😉 Her beret is still in place 🙂

Trine

The Naked Hunt is coming! 🙂

Later this month, a hunt dedicated to ‘those who love to roleplay as native/natural ways of life! cool stores offer you a selection of gifts – just for a dollarbie – find the tiles with the hunt image and buy them for 1L.’

Are we excited? You bet we are! 🙂

We hope that SL Naturist will be able to keep you informed of this fantastic hunt, and we’ll certainly be participating in it and blogging the items for sale when the hunt begins in just over two weeks time!

Trine