aeide-thea (♥!): gyzym: Okay, what the hell, no. No. No. No. No. So here’s the deal—I’m sure that this has been true for people. I’d go ahead and bet it was true for whoever made the graphic, and you know what, if that person had used “I” instead of “a woman” I would be just fine with this. If, for her, for anyone, the act of getting a haircut is a “clear gesture of defiance, dissatisfaction or despair,” that’s fine for them. However, the idea that all women and the choices that they make about their bodies are reflecting this same emotional concept? That, incidentally, revolves around men? Yeah, no. Fuck that very much. No. When I was in high school I cut 8 inches off my hair on a whim one day because I woke up and it felt heavy; I started growing it out when I left college because someone tried to tell me that “grown women keep their hair cropped.” It’s been blonde and..er, well, darker blonde, red for that one season, maroon, briefly, once, and I don’t make the decisions about what color I put in it based on how men feel either. It’s what looks good to me and what doesn’t. It’s what feels right and what doesn’t. It’s what I want or don’t want, because it is part of my body, and I am the only person who has the right to make a decision about it. So, from where I’m standing, this should really read: When a woman cuts her hair off, it’s not really about men at all, no matter what anyone says. Women know their own bodies better than anyone else does, and so when they cut their hair off, they are effectively making a decision that no one else has any right to judge. Whatever their reason, it’s a clear gesture of whatever they want it to be—whether it’s defiance, despair, dissatisfaction, or just that they’ve decided they want shorter fucking hair. Don’t let anyone tell you the right way to be a girl—to be a person—ever. However you’re doing it is just exactly the way it’s supposed to be done.  reblogged for commentary. YES. I’m probably going to have to cut my hair soon, I might even lose all of it, because one of the medications I take for my rheumatoid arthritis is making it fall out, and about three-quarters of it is gone. Do you why methotrexate hair loss is hard? It’s not just the knowledge that you’re poisoning your body, or the fact that it’s a reminder, a physical marker of the losses you have to endure because of illness. It’s because of the shitty, violent aesthetics — expressed in images like this one — which surround and oppress women’s bodies, teaching them to internalise shit like, you have to titillate the male gaze to have worth, you have to be beautiful, you have to be sexy, and you have to do it in the ways we tell you to. According to these aesthetics, women must have hair. If they don’t, out come the judgments, the assumptions. And so a medication side effect that might just be a nuisance, if I were male, is going to cause me grief. Not to mention cause me to hate myself a little for not being strong enough, for being unable to just say fuck it and not care what people think. So — seriously, fuck this image, fuck this attitude.

aeide-thea (♥!):

gyzym:

Okay, what the hell, no. No. No. No. No.

So here’s the deal—I’m sure that this has been true for people. I’d go ahead and bet it was true for whoever made the graphic, and you know what, if that person had used “I” instead of “a woman” I would be just fine with this. If, for her, for anyone, the act of getting a haircut is a “clear gesture of defiance, dissatisfaction or despair,” that’s fine for them.

However, the idea that all women and the choices that they make about their bodies are reflecting this same emotional concept? That, incidentally, revolves around men? Yeah, no. Fuck that very much. No.

When I was in high school I cut 8 inches off my hair on a whim one day because I woke up and it felt heavy; I started growing it out when I left college because someone tried to tell me that “grown women keep their hair cropped.” It’s been blonde and..er, well, darker blonde, red for that one season, maroon, briefly, once, and I don’t make the decisions about what color I put in it based on how men feel either. It’s what looks good to me and what doesn’t. It’s what feels right and what doesn’t. It’s what I want or don’t want, because it is part of my body, and I am the only person who has the right to make a decision about it.

So, from where I’m standing, this should really read:

When a woman cuts her hair off, it’s not really about men at all, no matter what anyone says. Women know their own bodies better than anyone else does, and so when they cut their hair off, they are effectively making a decision that no one else has any right to judge. Whatever their reason, it’s a clear gesture of whatever they want it to be—whether it’s defiance, despair, dissatisfaction, or just that they’ve decided they want shorter fucking hair.

Don’t let anyone tell you the right way to be a girl—to be a person—ever. However you’re doing it is just exactly the way it’s supposed to be done. 

reblogged for commentary.

YES. I’m probably going to have to cut my hair soon, I might even lose all of it, because one of the medications I take for my rheumatoid arthritis is making it fall out, and about three-quarters of it is gone. Do you why methotrexate hair loss is hard? It’s not just the knowledge that you’re poisoning your body, or the fact that it’s a reminder, a physical marker of the losses you have to endure because of illness. It’s because of the shitty, violent aesthetics — expressed in images like this one — which surround and oppress women’s bodies, teaching them to internalise shit like, you have to titillate the male gaze to have worth, you have to be beautiful, you have to be sexy, and you have to do it in the ways we tell you to. According to these aesthetics, women must have hair. If they don’t, out come the judgments, the assumptions. And so a medication side effect that might just be a nuisance, if I were male, is going to cause me grief. Not to mention cause me to hate myself a little for not being strong enough, for being unable to just say fuck it and not care what people think. So — seriously, fuck this image, fuck this attitude.

(Source: uncomfortablesoul)

Tags: peopleism