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.

At least they're not talking about her teeth. Maybe it's dawning on people that orthodontia can be a luxury.

Ginger speaks truth. What would they have said if she came out in cornrows?

OK, after reading about ten more articles that all quoted people saying things like, "It's great that she won, but with that hair?" I finally found a couple that said that the problem was that there was some texture at the front and nape, but the ponytail was straight, and it shouldn't be mismatched like that. Which, whatever, but at least I'm not staring at photos saying, "But what are they objecting to?" anymore.

I searched twitter for "gabby hair" the night that she won gold.

A couple of points: By far, most of the comments about her hair, and criticizing it, were made by people of color (at least, if their avatars were accurate). ETA: ALSO, most of the Tweets, by everyone - were supportive of Gabby's hair and took others to task for complaining about it.

One of my best friends on Twitter is pretty mad that the media picked up on the "story" at all, because she (she's Black) sees the media picking up on the "Black people are really critical of Black people's hair" angle and she is annoyed that "all Black people are being judged based on stupid people on Twitter trying to stir up shit". Her words.

My conclusion is that media wants you to click on headlines AND people who have a voice on the internet are sometimes going to write stupid things.

Also, envy. Lots and lots and lots of envy.

Here's a search. Scroll down and go back to late July. You'll see a sampling of the comments.

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Hil, I'm not sure how much sense you can find in a general atmosphere of "black people's hair isn't presentable." That's been some kind of truism coming out of the mouths of both black and white people for hundreds of years now.

The complaints don't need to make sense. I'd be surprised if they did. Because--they don't. There is a vocal contingent of people for whom nothing is good enough--and that contingent is comprised of warring factions--if you straighten your hair, you hate yourself, if you don't straighten it, you look raggedy.

It just is. Black hair ain't right, therefore it gets complained about. The actual adjectives used are irrelevant. They're criticizing her for having it, and being black. Everything else is set dressing.