By describing the sun as you would blood preceding or following instances of violence, Mayra Santos-Febres, the author of the short story, Broken Strand, adds new meaning to the common phrase, “beauty is pain”. The first time Santos-Febres ties together the sun, blood, and violence is after describing the abuse of Yetsaida’s father. Her father comes stumbling in from the streets, yelling and hitting, grabbing her mothers nose. Yetsaida describes, “the river that comes out of the nose, red, neon red like Miss Kety’s comb. The sun arrives, red, red, red; it overflows with blood like a ripening womb, like it has a deep gnash in its system, like they had given it a tremendous beating” (4). The scene of a broken nose is not pretty, yet the suns rays, described like flowing blood, is somehow poetic, and almost beautiful. Furthermore, Miss Kety constantly reminds her clients that they cannot move, as they could be seriously hurt by the hot comb; yet, in order to be beautiful the girls must endure the harsh heat to get the straight hair they see as beautiful. Similarly, sunsets are seen as beautiful, but when described as the red light pour in and over the walls, the reader begins to question its beauty, as it begins to sound more violent. In all these instances, pain, either through the heat of the comb or the blood of the sun, is necessary for the beauty of the straight hair or the beautiful colors of the sunset. These women in Yetsaida’s town must endure incredible pain to feel beautiful, enduring the hot comb and the abuse of their husbands. “Beauty is pain” is an accepted saying by many, yet by almost making the reader uncomfortable with the description of beauty being painful through the sun, blood, and violence, Santos-Febres calls into question the saying, opening up a new discussion into why we believe this and how this sentiment is open to change.
Hi Kiri! I like your analysis of why beauty is associated with pain. And it is not only physical pain like the hot comb, but also emotional, led by the self-hatred of the girls who try to reconstruct themselves to fit Western beauty standards. Your analysis reminded me of a quote from Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, where they say, “Women are born with pain built-in. It’s our physical destiny — period pains, sore boobs, childbirth. We carry it within ourselves throughout our lives.” Pain is innate to the experience of being a woman, and beauty is a valuable asset that facilitates women’s navigation of society, for which the pain that is undergone to reach these standards is accepted as our ‘physical destiny.’ In Broken Strand, the girls accept damaging their hair and altering the features they were born with, ultimately undergoing a never-ending process of pain. They are pressured to succumb to Eurocentric beauty standards to alleviate the pain of not fitting in. Still, they ultimately find as much pain once they undergo their transformations. Santos-Febres speaks to the continuing violent cycle of being a Black Puerto Rican woman under patriarchal and racist structures, in which pain is a feeling that can not be avoided.
Hi Kiri, I loved your post! You really got me thinking about the phrase “beauty is pain” and the deeply-rooted internalized misogyny imbedded within it. Why do we accept that phrase as normal? Is it the same reason the women in Santos-Febres’ story accept their broken noses as normal? I am very intrigued by your connection to the blood imagery as well. It makes me wonder if we as a society are more ready to acknowledge abuse if it is physical, like blood, or the broken noses of the women in this story, rather than emotional or mental abuse. Perhaps Santos-Febres wants to draw our attention to the internalized hatred of natural hair by surrounding it with images of blood, like Miss Kety’s auburn hair.
Hi Kiri, I can not agree more! I think the cost of beautification is a very important topic to consider. Personally, aside from the self-care argument, I see little use in spending hours putting on make-up and straightening hair. It seems cult-like in its nature. Many women will straighten or curl their hair daily to look nice only to the detriment of their hair’s health. While I understand feeling beautiful is not a completely irrational desire, it starts to become increasingly difficult for me to understand waxing or other severely painful ‘beautification’ processes that people undergo for the sake of looking good. I think it’s an important discussion people should have with themselves: to what end?