"cute space buns :3" or, should white AC:NH players be able to use the new hairstyles?

[sweetie]

So a few days ago, a woman decided to tweet this:



This caused a massive argument in the replies. Many argued that this white woman should not be using this hairstyle in Animal Crossing, as the reason it was put in was to diversify the hairstyles to include styles that accounted for black hair. They argue that white people using this hairstyle, and then calling it "space buns" instead of afro puffs, is taking advantage black culture. Many have said that only PoC should be using these new hairstyles.

And of course there is the other side, arguing that this isn't a big deal, it's just a video game, this isn't worth getting upset over. Many expressed frustration at this as well, claiming that these "small" things are always taken from black people.

I thought this was interesting and worth discussing here...what do you think?

 

[Era Uma Vez]

I don't see anything wrong with it, but then again, I also wouldn't see anything wrong even if you used it in real life.
It's two buns on top of your head, what's the deal?
I had an ex who tied her hair like that, like a casual look to wear inside the house when we didn't go out.

EDIT: Is this more about the hair on itself, or calling it space buns instead of afro puffs? I'm on my phone, the pic is too small, so I dont know if the hair is supposed to be straight or not.

 

[Hailinel]

People saying anyone of any particular race can't use any particular hairstyle in Animal Crossing are straight up daft.

 

[Theswweet]

I might be given shit for this, but I feel like there are actual examples of racism/racial discrimination that matter much, much more than someone deciding to use a certain hairstyle in a Nintendo game. It feels... sorta shallow?

I am white though, so if PoC posters want to chime and educate me on the matter, feel free - I just think the whole thing comes across as more than a little silly from the outside looking in.

 

[carlsojo]

Cute hairstyle

 

[alexi52]

"Space buns"

Seems like she was making a Leia reference, it was definitely overreaction on the side of the people harassing her since I'm sure I've seen that hairstyle used alot with other races and cultures

 

[Richietto]

Its in the game and people can and should be able to customize their character however the fuck they want. That shit is cute and if I didn't choose to rock the pink fro I would definitely have used that hairstyle.

Also looking through the replies there is definitely a ton of white people mad at her which makes it even more ridiculous.

 

[solidr]

I always thought they are "chinese hair buns" or this is another hairstyle?

 

[Wolf]

Yes, they should.

 

[Hero.of.Lgnd]

...Are you serious? OF COURSE white people can use any hair style in the game, just like black people are free to do the same. To suggest anything else is beyond ridiculous.

This sounds like when people online said that white people aren't allowed to go see Black Panther.

 

[udivision]

People saying anyone of any particular race can't use any particular hairstyle in Animal Crossing are straight up daft.

Click to shrink...

I wonder if there's a word for that.

 

[grady]

The outright harassment this person faced just for choosing a particular hairstyle in a videogame is, to me, utterly insane.

 

[L Thammy]

It's not my place to say whether it's offensive or not, but I feel like I can see how it might potentially be being a sensitive subject. Especially the name. Just looking up images in Google, you can see that most of the "space puffs" you come across are clearly straight hair collected in a lump, which doesn't really look like what the hair in the OP is.

The person in the tweet doubles down on referring to them as space puffs, which may be frustrating when the entire point of the inclusion is to add hair styles that are built around hair textures that white people generally don't have.

 

[platocplx]

Black women and hair is a very complex social issue and I think while people of various races may be able to use those particular hair styles in games I think they should call them what they are culturally called in my opinion. I don't think games should totally restrict hairstyles by race. Personally but I think people should at least treat them with some respect.

I would encourage posters who don't understand this issue to watch this:

 

[Aurc]

Let anyone use any hairstyle, whether it's real life, or Animal Crossing. You don't get to enforce any control over that, I mean holy smokes.

 

[JC Lately]

Nobody tell these people about odangos.

 

[MouldyK]

Lol, what is this person babbling about?

"She bought the hair, so went out of her way to be racist!"




EDIT: This reply to her is lulz:

 

[MasonADC]

There is literally nothing wrong with what that woman decided to do, it's a video game and the internet is acting dumb

 

[L Thammy]

"Space buns"

Seems like she was making a Leia reference

Click to shrink...

It seems like the common name of a hairstyle. There are instructions and stuff online.

When I look up afro puffs:

 

[Sawyer]

She thought it was Leia's hairstyle.

 

[Era Uma Vez]

Black women and hair is a very complex social issue and I think while people of various races may be able to use those particular hair styles in games I think they should call them what they are culturally called in my opinion. I don't think games should totally restrict hairstyles by race. Personally but I think people should at least treat them with some respect.

I would encourage posters who don't understand this issue to watch this:

Click to shrink...

The link's dead.
EDIT: Nevermind, it's working, just not available in my country.

 

[HelloItsPulse]

If it were a racist tweet, then I could understand the backlash. It's very complimentary of the hair style though, so anyone trying to gatekeep the hair style needs to grow up, honestly.

I bet these people getting mad at this woman didn't get mad at Justin Timberlake for wearing Cornrows when he was in N-Sync, or even worse, Justin Bieber having cornrows a few years ago and then saying that they made him "look like a douchebag".

 

[Stopdoor]

Animal Crossing is kind of weird because people seem to have different ideas of if the character is "you" or just an avatar. I pretty much always make characters that don't look anything like me but it kind of makes me wonder if that's equivalent to blackface in some cases, at least, I'm sure some people would see it that way and it makes me a bit uneasy.

At least, maybe if someone calls you out for calling a hairstyle "space buns" I think you could at least reflect.

 

[L Thammy]

Is this more about the hair on itself, or calling it space buns instead of afro puffs?

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The name does seem to be part of the concern.

 

[JC Lately]

At least, maybe if someone calls you out for calling a hairstyle "space buns" I think you could at least reflect.

Click to shrink...

"space buns" is literally the name of the style though. Google it, its been a thing forever.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

There's a point at which the reaction far exceeds damage of the initial faux paus, and this seems like a perfect example of that tbh.

 

[Stopdoor]

"space buns" is literally the name of the style though. Google it, its been a thing forever.

Click to shrink...

Well, fair enough, didn't know.

 

[Okabe]

it's more so the name of the Hair Style made by the internet . Everyone uses the term "Space Buns" mostly among Tik-tok or Twitch atm

 

[Fanuilos]

Yeah, it's fine for anyone to use that or other hairstyles.

 

[Deleted member 33533]

I always thought they are "chinese hair buns" or this is another hairstyle?

Click to shrink...

For reference, here's a better picture. It's a lot to do with the texture of the hair. It seems to be intentionally black hair.

That said, I think it's fine to give your AC character whatever hairstyle you want. It's a character creator for a cute game, you should have whatever hair is available. This is far from actual cultural appropriation which can cause actual harm.

Like I'd much rather be fighting for more black features in character creators because we're severely lacking than to police who can use those options or what skin tone your character must have.

 

[SunshinePuppies]

The associated Twitter account does seem to be a little troubling, some of their tweets. I don't know if maybe it is a result of the (in my opinion excessive) backlash causing them to be defensive, but something to think about. Personally looking through it through my lens as a POC which has a lot of culture misappropriated by white people and a history of hundreds of years of colonization, looking at the tweet in a vacuum, no I don't think there was any sort of racially charged insult here. That being said, if I look at this person's greater twitter account, it gives me pause.

Just my two cents.

 

[platocplx]

The link's dead.
EDIT: Nevermind, it's working, just not available in my country.

Click to shrink...

Sorry the movie is called good hair. And most of this stuff is more about people just wearing other hair styles as a costume and not respectful of them, and there are deep ass issues when it comes to black hair and that's why people should be more sensitive when we have shit like this happening to us:

N.J. wrestler forced to cut dreadlocks still targeted over hair, lawyer says

Video of Andrew Johnson's haircut during a match last month led to a firestorm of criticism and accusations of abuse of power and racism.

www.nbcnews.com

'Supposed to be accepting': Private school forces out Black children with locks, parents say

Zion Temple Christian Academy in Avondale told a family that locks, a natural hair style for African-Americans, is not allowed at the school.

www.cincinnati.com

Florida School Forces Black Student Cut to His 'Distracting' Hair

Kiara Hudson is claiming a private Christian school discriminated against her son, Austin Garrick, 8, by forcing him to get a haircut last week.

www.ebony.com

So there are reasons why people get upset by this stuff when society itself constantly does things to attack blackness from hair etc.

This is not to say that restricting hair styles to skin tones really is the best thing imo to do in games, but I think there should be more text and talk about why those hairstyles are important etc before adding them to a character etc.

 

[SunshinePuppies]

Sorry the movie is called good hair. And most of this stuff is more about people just wearing other hair styles as a costume and not respectful of them, and there are deep ass issues when it comes to black hair and that's why people should be more sensitive when we have shit like this happening to us:

N.J. wrestler forced to cut dreadlocks still targeted over hair, lawyer says

Video of Andrew Johnson's haircut during a match last month led to a firestorm of criticism and accusations of abuse of power and racism.

www.nbcnews.com

'Supposed to be accepting': Private school forces out Black children with locks, parents say

Zion Temple Christian Academy in Avondale told a family that locks, a natural hair style for African-Americans, is not allowed at the school.

www.cincinnati.com

Florida School Forces Black Student Cut to His 'Distracting' Hair

Kiara Hudson is claiming a private Christian school discriminated against her son, Austin Garrick, 8, by forcing him to get a haircut last week.

www.ebony.com

So there are reasons why people get upset by this stuff when society itself constantly does things to attack blackness from hair etc.

This is not to say that restricting hair styles to skin tones really is the best thing imo to do in games, but I think there should be more text and talk about why those hairstyles are important etc before adding them to a character etc.

Click to shrink...

Restricting hair styles to skin tones starts to get into a slippery slope of what is "blackness," a conversation that can easily spiral into toxic colorism i.e. how light skinned are you allowed to be and still identify as black?

 

[L Thammy]

There's a point at which the reaction far exceeds damage of the initial faux paus, and this seems like a perfect example of that tbh.

Click to shrink...

I haven't been following this so I have no idea of the scale, but generally, I think that when it evolves from criticism to harassment it's most likely gone too far. I'm not going to tell black people what they should think of as important, though, or how they should feel about potential cultural appropriation.

It's not like this exists in a vacuum either - every time Ariana Grande comes up, I'm left reeling from remembering that she's Italian.

 

[platocplx]

Restricting hair styles to skin tones starts to get into a slippery slope of what is "blackness," a conversation that can easily spiral into toxic colorism i.e. how light skinned are you allowed to be and still identify as black?

Click to shrink...

Yep exactly, I'd rather games actually be respectful of the names of the hair styles and/or recognize their cultural significances.

 

[Iori Fuyusaka]

Click to shrink...

This looks like an open and shut case, honestly.

 

[KartuneDX]

Space buns sound like a Star Wars reference. There's dialogue to be had about ethnic appropriation in games but hairstyles in ACNH?

 

[Kinthey]

What the...

 

[Deleted member 60135]

This looks like an open and shut case, honestly.

Click to shrink...

Not really? Hair isn't the same texture at all.

 

[chaobreaker]

If white players want their villager to wear puffs then that's fine. I don't care. The problem is calling them space buns when your white villagers are sporting them.

The AC fandom undermining and talking down black player's frustration with the series historically limited character creation options.

Nintendo are finally course correcting with new skin tone and hair option in recent AC games but some white players can't have that and are now claiming these as their own.

Low-key one of the most toxic Nintendo fandoms out there.

 

[Era Uma Vez]

Sorry the movie is called good hair. And most of this stuff is more about people just wearing other hair styles as a costume and not respectful of them, and there are deep ass issues when it comes to black hair and that's why people should be more sensitive when we have shit like this happening to us:

N.J. wrestler forced to cut dreadlocks still targeted over hair, lawyer says

Video of Andrew Johnson's haircut during a match last month led to a firestorm of criticism and accusations of abuse of power and racism.

www.nbcnews.com

'Supposed to be accepting': Private school forces out Black children with locks, parents say

Zion Temple Christian Academy in Avondale told a family that locks, a natural hair style for African-Americans, is not allowed at the school.

www.cincinnati.com

Florida School Forces Black Student Cut to His 'Distracting' Hair

Kiara Hudson is claiming a private Christian school discriminated against her son, Austin Garrick, 8, by forcing him to get a haircut last week.

www.ebony.com

So there are reasons why people get upset by this stuff when society itself constantly does things to attack blackness from hair etc.

This is not to say that restricting hair styles to skin tones really is the best thing imo to do in games, but I think there should be more text and talk about why those hairstyles are important etc before adding them to a character etc.

Click to shrink...

Thank you, that was very insightful.
Definitely a delicate subject.

 

[wedl]

or even worse, Justin Bieber having cornrows a few years ago and then saying that they made him "look like a douchebag".

Click to shrink...

how is this a bad thing, they did and he is a douchebag regardless of his hair

 

[SteveWinwood]

all the replies of people yelling are like 17 or 18

is this what kids do nowadays

 

[CorpseLight]

It's a hair style in a goddamn Nintendo game.

When people get outraged over this complete nonsense shit, it totally dilutes ACTUAL complaints of real things PoC have to go thru every single day.

 

[Deleted member 33533]

Yep exactly, I'd rather games actually be respectful of the names of the hair styles and/or recognize their cultural significances.

Click to shrink...

What does the game call them? Or is it just like Hair 12 or something?

 

[ClickyCal']

What the...

Click to shrink...

wut

 

[Deleted member 60135]

What does the game call them? Or is it just like Hair 12 or something?

Click to shrink...

It's just a picture of the hair.

 

[ExoExplorer]

Low-key one of the most toxic Nintendo fandoms out there.

Click to shrink...

I'm sorry chief but this ain't it. Every fandom can be "toxic". Especially once something reaches many people. And you really can't use this one tweet to characterize the whole community, thats an exhausting argument.

 

[Lord Fanny]

At a glance, those look closer to Space Buns to me than they do Afro Puffs, but looking at the other photo someone posted, I can see what people are talking about, though, they do seem to be going more for Afro Puff style. I don't know enough about that person/Twitter account to say, but that really does seem like it could be an honest mistake to me.

 

[Vexii]

Sometimes I can't help but think in trying to be as un-racist as possible, people accidentally end up course correcting so heavily that they end up racist, but in the opposite direction.

And what I mean by that is that almost every reaction that I've seen to that tweet has been by angry white people speaking FOR black people - Black people who don't get to speak for themselves enough as-is and don't need white people gatekeeping for them.