The girl with the afro can't act.

i actually think she's one of the stronger actresses on the show. and coming from a fan of cw and abcfm shows (so im not just trashing the channels, i like them) i think this show has better acting than at least 70% of what we normally get, not counting the obviously more popular shows like vampire diaries and supernatural.

and FINALLY. ivy973, on the issue of her hair. you made a decent point bringing up the analogy for britne's hair with jennifers, but there is a big difference. people are saying that they don't find her afro attractive. i'd put money that not all of these people are not african american (but of course I can't be sure). for jennifer, her issue was having to cut her own hair. for britne, people are suggesting she get a weave, or "calm down her afro"- essentially relax it. This means she should either braid down her own lovely hair, buy a Malaysian (that's one of the places weave comes from)woman's hair (which can go for $500 a pack), and then sew another woman's (or another race) hair onto her head, in essence, giving viewers the impression that she has the hair a non-black woman. Or, she relax her own hair- by that i mean, put chemicals into her scalp that BURNS THE CURL OUT (look it up-- the product we use to relax our hair DISSOLVES COKE CANS) to make her own hair straight and flowy- again, not typical attributes of a black woman. basically what you're implying (knowingly or not) is that because the american ideal for a beautiful woman has straight (or wavyish, or at the very least CALM) hair- not an afro,britne, being on american tv show should have flowy hair. the problem is this- just because you might find one thing beautiful doesn't mean another culture will. an extreme example would be this- an asian actress is the star of the tv show. however, she has slanted eyes. some fans of the tv show do not like the way her eyes are NATURALLY, and post on a fan board that she should "do something with her eyes. like change them. i liked her eyes much better on that other show, where she taped them down". now you might say that this is an extreme example that would never happen. you'd be wrong. look up julie chen.

basically (because i realize i'm kind of rambling) just because you may not like britne's natural hair (because trust me, that skins hair was a WEAVE), that does not make it any less attractive. yes, popular culture (for primarily white america) says that a straight nose, slim body, perky boobs, and flowing hair are what is beautiful. i mean, consistently, that is what the women ranked most beautiful have- jennifer aniston, angelina jolie, jennifer lawrence, the list goes on and on. but that does not make solange knowles or janelle monet any less beautiful. it just means that there are some people out there who have their one set ideal of beauty, and for someone to be considered attractive, they must check every mark on the box. And in America's history, those ideals have been designed by those in power, who then proceed to impart their beauty rules on the rest of the country. and right now, those in power have decided that a beautiful woman looks like megan fox or reese witherspoon or taylor swift.

I didn't mean to turn this into a dissertation on black hair, and this of course isn't all directed at you ivy! i just started this as a response to your specific example, and it all snowballed from there lol. and i'm not hating on black women who relax or weave their hair- i do both AND braid. in fact, i usually only wear my hair natural in the winter to give it a break (from the CHEMICALZZZZZZZZ)

but. tldr. people think straight hair is pretty because that is what they see on tv. and subliminally, it has been beat into their brains that that is what is most beautiful. but would you tell a 6 year old black girl with an afro that she should "do something with her hair"? would you suggest a weave for her? what if she thinks she's the most beautiful little girl in her class, even prettier than becky with the long blond hair to her butt? is she wrong because you don't think the afro is pretty? comparing the aniston haircut to the afro is HUGELY problematic, for many reasons, on of them being the important history to the hairstyle. i'm sure no one on this board supports skin bleaching, although it happens in places all over the world, by women trying to lighten their skin to acheive someone else's standard of beauty. you would never suggest that britne alter her skin color through use of chemicals. so why suggest she do the EXACT same thing to her hair?

i hope i've kind of informed some of yall about the inherent problems that lie in suggesting a member of an ethnic minority of which you may or may not be a part of alter something about herself to appear more attractive to YOU.

a great link: http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/02/black-women-and-hollywood-afrai d-to-go-natural/comment-page-1/