Response to Myhre

Myhre's discussion made me think a little bit about how we look at hair. It becomes such a large part of women’s (I cannot and will not speak for men) lives. It is part of our identity and how we identify others. If someone has long hair you usually will guess that it is a woman. Think of the standard Facebook profile picture. Before someone replaces it with their own, they are given an image that is either “male” or “female” depending on how you registered. They don’t actually look like real profiles of people. The way we wear our hair has come to say a lot about ourselves. If you leave it plain--you are down to earth and low maintenance, but if you style it every day, you are prissy and high maintenance. Personalities and judgments are forced upon women based on how they wear their hair. Obviously, these things aren’t always true. There is a stereotype that lesbians cut their hair short. If you have short hair, then you must be a lesbian. I can attest that this is not true. I know more lesbians with long hair than short and the majority of women with short hair are straight.

I just think about how much of my life gets associated with hair and it seems disturbing. I don’t want to tally up the amount of time that I spend thinking about it, talking about it, or working with it. I don’t want to sound like it is the highest priority in my life, so I feel like I need to explain a few things. Thinking- I’m growing it out for Locks of Love. Just about daily, I am about on the verge of donating it but then want a few more inches. Talking- one of my apartment-mates has super curly hair that won’t really straighten, so hair is mentioned a lot. Working- brushing, washing, and shaving. It takes time. I can’t be certain where I fall in the spectrum of hair care, but I know that women spent a lot of time and money on it.

Femininity has grown to be represented in hair, presence and lack of, instead of the repeated actions that one does. Having long or short hair shouldn’t be a representation of the amount of feminine features/actions one has.