Yeah, that's some bullshit.

Can somebody explain to me why people were criticizing Gabby Douglas' hair? I've seen a bunch of "She went in front of the cameras with THAT hair?!" type comments, and I can't figure out what people are objecting to. She had a ponytail, which seems fairly standard for gymnastics. When I exercise with my hair in a ponytail, my sweat tends to make the front part curl and frizz out, so that there's a bunch of hair sticking out around my face, but she had enough clips in so that didn't happen. What are people seeing that I'm not seeing?

I think it wasn't the ponytail, but the kind of "this isn't really a bun but I've doubled-up my ponytail in a half-ass looking way" part? I thought it was a little weird, given how slicked back and glittered and baretted the front was, but...

that's some bullshit.

It's consistent bullshit, if at all. The last time I had a plumber work on a blocked garbage disposal, their caution was "nothing fibrous--nothing you wouldn't put into a dishwasher--whatever's left after you scraped your plate into the garbage."

So I believe them, and that I'm skating on luck inbetween blockages.

Can somebody explain to me why people were criticizing Gabby Douglas' hair?

Racism and hair politics, in a nutshell. Your hair might frizz out, but at the end of the day, you're still white.

I think it wasn't the ponytail, but the kind of "this isn't really a bun but I've doubled-up my ponytail in a half-ass looking way" part? I thought it was a little weird, given how slicked back and glittered and baretted the front was, but...

But a bunch of them were wearing their hair like that. (And she didn't have glitter in her hair. I remember noticing and commenting that all the Russians had a ton of glitter, but the Americans were glitter-free.)

greetings all!

I have moved and have been in my new residence since Thursday. I checked in to Bitches throughout the Hades of my move, but I'm starting to catch up on all things. I am a bigass skipper, but I will read through the 1500 messages I have missed thus far.

I have spent a king's ransom trying to get out of town and getting settled here, but my house is on the market and I hope it will be sold soon!

Yay to Curiosity and to most of the Olympics (except NBC's awful awful coverage). The less said about the stuff bumming me out the better.

Racism and hair politics, in a nutshell. Your hair might frizz out, but at the end of the day, you're still white.

Yeah, I get that, but I still don't see what the problem was. I googled a bit, and found a bunch of articles quoting people criticizing her hair, but I can't find anything with specifics about what they thought was wrong with it. I'm confused about what people were objecting to.

Gabby also had a fake ponytail in the back that people objected to. In large measure, it was no worse or better than most hair I saw in women's gymnastics.

There are few subjects more emotionally charged than black hair.

It's flat-out racism. They just couldn't find anything else to criticize.