Why do you keep your hair so short? or Your hair is so beautiful--why don't you let it grow? i use clippers to keep my shorter than 3/4" for a number of reasons. first, i'm against the commodification of beauty. this way, i don't have to pay someone else to cut my hair or to make special hair products to keep it in good condition. (i don't wear make-up, shave my body hair, or bow down to the fashion gods for the same reason.) i am against the commodification of beauty because i think it is oppressive to women when the beauty industry and the culture which supports it insist that we fade-cream and diet ourselves into disappearing from power in society while our disposable income is spent on so-called beauty products instead of used to advance our political, societal and other ideals. advertising and society at large imply that females of all ages are not worthy of love, admiration, or success if they choose not to spend their hard-earned money on beauty products* (see The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf and Cunt by Inga Muscio and various works by Gloria Steinem). this is especially problematic since women continue to take home less pay for the same work as men, while men are not expected to purchase cosmetics or extensive wardrobes (think about shoes) in the same way that women are. although there is a rising trend for men to be more concerned about appearance and to purchase greater numbers of and more costly hair and skin care products than in the past, this is not a solution to the problem. in fact, it makes things worse by reinforcing the capitalist system that oppresses so many more than it benefits and by undermining everyone's self-esteem. the solution is to make beauty products a real option for all genders, instead of cultivating insecurity.
secondly, i like the way my hair looks. i think it's cute. i get a lot of attention because of it.
finally, i enjoy challenging other people's ideas of what is beautiful, or even acceptable, especially when it relates to issues of gender. keeping my hair short lends an androgynous aire to my appearance. when i was a teen-ager, my hair was always at least mid-back length and shiny blond. at some point, i got very tired of representing the fair blond-haired blue-eyed ideal (or something close to it) that is used as a weapon against the vast majority of women in the united states and elsewhere (see the discussion above regarding the commodification of beauty).
*For more about this, see The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf (Anchor Books, 1991), cunt: a declaration of independence by inga muscio (Seal Press, 1998), and the article "Sex, Lies, and Advertising" (1990) republished with a new preface in Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking Boundaries of Gender by Gloria Steinem (Simon & Schuster, 1994). |
