DA DO RAG RAG

Everyone knows what a durag is. Or dorag. Or doorag. I have one from the 70s in my Etsy shop. It’s vintage and retro, but the design is still current.

Where did this come from? Probably Africa, where women still wear fabulous head wraps. They’re like big do rags with the tie in front. We know in 1700s New Orleans enslaved women were required to wear head coverings to demean them and make sure everyone else knew they were enslaved.

That hideous law has been turned on its head, thank goodness. In current culture, the durag is embraced by musicians, motorcyclists, bicyclists, top fashion designers, medical personnel, people with hair loss and people with natural hair protecting their do. Rihanna’s dancers wore do rags under their fuzzy hoods at Super Bowl 2023.

This hip accessory makes me think of the 1963 song by the Crystals – “Da Doo Ron Ron” – specifically written to imbed itself in your brain. Sort of a rock ‘n’ roll tumor.

Enjoy:

Just imagine The Crystals performing at the first Super Bowl halftime show just four years later. It would have been rock and roll – you know – Satan’s music. They would have had those bare arms and those wiggly, shimmy moves. Outraged, God-fearing viewers would have complained to the FCC. They would have used words like "overtly sexual" and "patently offensive and completely inappropriate for children." Like porn. And you allowed your innocent offspring to watch because?

 

“Excuse me, ma’am, have you ever watched porn?”

 

Just like the more than a hundred people who complained to the FCC after Rihanna’s performance at Super Bowl 57. They claimed the show was "overtly sexual".  Some of the dance moves "were patently offensive and completely inappropriate for children." You know, just like porn. Sooo you let your children watch porn because?

 

“Excuse me, Karen, have you ever watched porn? How about you, Ken?

Never mind. Your fat red face is answer enough.”

 

God bless America.