The Paraphernalia of Suffering: Chris Rock’s Good Hair, Still Playing in the Dark

Rock explains that the impetus for his documentary came from his daughter, Lola. After coming in the house from playing one day, she asked, “Daddy, why don’t I have good hair?” He wondered what could have prompted this question, especially since he knows how careful and intentional he is in lavishing her with love and attention. Rock claims the rest of the documentary will be an attempt to explore and uncover the definition of “good hair” and how the black community defines it. Although Rock’s intention is to find a way to encourage his daughter, the documentary actually reveals perverse ideological structures shaping the notion of beauty. This aspect of the film text is left uninterrogated. There is no critique of the explicit question of “good hair” and no real exploration of the cause of such normative understanding. Rock overlooks the more profound classificatory categories associated with the notion of beauty. Good Hair (2009) reveals what Nathanael West describes as the “paraphernalia of suffering.” What he deems as the fetishization of objects.