Why Short Hair Is Still A Feminist Statement

Your Haircut Is More Than A Styling Choice

The first time I cut my hair short, a boy at school told me I looked like a man. I felt terrible. To his defence, we were in 5th grade, and I looked like a man. My mom had to cut my hair extremely short after my sister thought chopping a sizable chunk off with a pair of children’s safety scissors was a good idea.

That was the first time I experienced the stigma associated with women wearing short hair. A stereotype which society bakes into our brains from a young age.

This episode happened over twenty years ago, but it has been far from the only one.

I have had short hair (never below my shoulder) for most of my adult life. It is just a matter of convenience: I work out a lot and loathe blow drying my hair. It is not a feminist statement of any sort, yet it feels like one.

Whenever I have gone from long hair to short ones, I always had people giving me their feedback, whether I asked for it or not. It’s like they feel compelled to pick a side. Men would tell me how they liked me best with long hair, whereas women will compliment my bravery. I will not comment on the fact that men I barely know think I must know whether they find me attractive, but I want to deep dive into this brave thing.

I never knew that cutting my hair short would turn me into a novel Joan of Arc. Now, I am certainly not leading the French army into battle, but perhaps I am battling against gender stereotypes. We all are. What should be just a styling choice is, whether we like it or not, a controversial topic. So why is that?

A Brief History of Hair

In patriarchal societies, genders have always been very distinct. The role of a woman was predominantly domestic and subordinate to the men. The different hairstyles, just as dress codes, were there to reinforce the concept. God forbid a woman wore trousers or shaved her hair off. It would have been considered subversive.

And women would not have wanted to do it either. For most human history, until the beginning of the last century, women could only go from daughters to wives, and marriage was anything but a romantic affair. If your father didn’t have enough livestock, estates, or money to lure your future husband, your only chance of making a good marriage was, frankly, to be pretty. In an age where men weren’t allowed to talk to a woman until the wedding, there was little chance to impress them with personality or wit. A pretty face framed by thick hair was way more straightforward.

And you had to be healthy-looking. A woman’s duty was primarily to have children, and long hair was considered a telling sign of good health, which would increase the woman’s chances to give birth to a healthy (possibly male) heir.

Given the stakes, an unmarried woman would definitely want long locks. Married women, however, would want the opposite.

As soon as you got married and started giving birth to half a dozen kids, it would have been sinful for you to be attractive. It is interesting to observe how modesty is strongly tied to hair: married women have covered or tied theirs for centuries, nuns have been wearing hair coverings until the Pope changed that in 1959.

Hair is something that makes a woman attractive to men. It is acceptable if you’re young and looking for a husband but shameful after you’ve got one, as you shouldn’t want nor need to entice other men anymore.

Thankfully, a hundred years ago, during the roaring 20s, women have pushed back against these ideas, and we have moved on. But have we?

Old Stereotypes Die Hard

While we don’t have to cover our hair anymore, I feel we are still being told what to do with our hair. Especially after we reach a certain age.

I am sure you must have seen articles in women-oriented magazines that suggest the best hairstyles for when you are in your 40s, 50s, 60s, etc. And these hairstyles are, mostly, short.

What does age have to do with someone’s mane? Sure, short hair can make you look younger (depending on your facial features) or might be gentler on thinning/brittle hair. But do ALL women have brittle hair as they age? Or is it about the image society wants older women to portray?

My mother had long hair before marrying my father, and she kept them long for some time after my sister and I were born. But, as soon as she approached her 40s, she cut them short and has kept them like that ever since. She always says that an older woman will look tidier with a short haircut. In my mother’s lexicon, tidy means not sexy.

There still is shame around mothers or even grandmothers having active sex lives, being attractive, or simply being, you know, women. Society would prefer them to just play the mono-dimensional roles we’ve assigned to them.

That women of a certain age should display modesty is still very much here, just in a different form. Stereotypes are hard to die, especially when the media keeps perpetuating them.

Representation, Representation, Representation

Let me tell you a story. A few days ago, I was queuing outside a bakery, waiting for my turn. Behind me was a girl about 9 or 10 years old with her father. She pointed her finger at me and asked her father why the lady’s hair (mine) looked like a man’s (I gave myself a pixie cut during the lock-down). Here We Go Again.

After over 20 years, women can wear their hair however they want without being judged or meaning anything still hasn’t landed.

You’d forgive the little girl from the story above for not knowing this simple lesson because, from the moment we are born, we are surrounded by imagery of women with long hair.

Is there a single Disney princess with short hair? I don’t think so.

Mulan cuts her hair short to disguise herself as a man. Rapunzel is the quintessential damsel in distress with extra-long, luscious hair. I mean, her hair is literally magic, and she loses her powers when they are cut off. What is a child supposed to take away from it?

From an early age, we are taught to equate long hair with womanly qualities. Short-haired women are often represented as tough and strong-willed. Definitely not the loving or maternal type.

In recent years, the call for gender equality in media representation has produced some exciting results, with more bad-ass roles available for women. However, these roles are often so sexualized that it’s hard to tell whether it’s actually a step forward.

With the role models we are given, it feels like your hairstyle determines your personality. You can only be one or the other. That’s why representation is important. It shapes how we see ourselves and how society sees us.

Bias and Prejudice

Society will see a woman with long hair as caring, sweet, delicate. But also weak and incompetent. In fact, if you have longer hair, people might consider you unprofessional or less qualified in the workplace. If you have short hair, people are more likely to consider you serious and reliable.

Of course, there is absolutely no relationship between the length of someone’s hair and their capabilities. This is an example of gender bias. Bias is the tendency to judge or make decisions that deviate from rational objectivity. Such decisions are based on existing beliefs, which can often stem from stereotypes or prejudice.

The stereotype here is that a woman with long hair is a frivolous individual who only cares about their appearance, whereas a woman with short hair is not. She would be more similar to a man and, therefore, trustworthy.

I can’t even tell how wrong this stereotype is. And damaging too. The fight for equality in the workplace is far from winning. Women are already struggling to be evaluated objectively. The last thing we want to add to the discrimination pile is how we wear our hair.

Whether we like it, the way we look will influence how others perceive us. Wearing our hair long or short will make people assume things about us due to preconceived ideas. It’s been like this for a long time and will still be like that for a while.

It is hard to get rid of stereotypes, but we can change how society views some things. How do you ask? By keep doing them.

The more we do something, the more we normalize it. People get used to it and drop their preconceptions. Sure, it doesn’t happen overnight but, at some point, things change.

So, wear your hair however YOU like. And, if you feel like chopping them off, go ahead. Feels good.