Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 May 27

= May 27 =

Haircuts and gender roles
Why and at what point did short hair on women become associated with masculinity/lesbianism? To my observation, short hairstyles on women were quite popular in the 50s and 60s, and those are two decades I would associate more than any other with hyperfemininity. To my knowledge, no one accused the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Liz Taylor, Mia Farrow or Twiggy of emulating masculinity with their hairstyles, so when did short hair on women = manliness?

For most of human history, both sexes sported long hair with no problem. Then all of a sudden, short hair become mandatory for males. To the point that the young men who rebelled against this convention in the late 60s, 70s and 80s were considered anti-establishment and were seen as disrespecting authority figures by sporting long hair. Which severely curtailed employment opportunities if you weren't a successful rock star who had no reason to care. Today this viewpoint has relaxed a bit, but for the most part you are expected to have short hair if you're a man and not a rock star or a hippie. Again, what are the origins for this expectation and why?

I might be going slightly off topic here, but I must also ask this: Why are hairstyles permitted to be regulated under dress codes? To the point that some people with certain hair types may even be compelled to alter the natural texture of their hair simply because curly or kinky hair is considered "unprofessional". Since your hair is part of your body and not something you can easily change like clothes or jewelry, shouldn't this be considered discriminatory? How is this different from demanding that employees be of a certain skin tone and mandating that they bleach or tan their skin in order to be eligible for the job? Constantly altering your hair (either chemically or through heat) to mimic a texture it doesn't naturally have is very damaging and an unjust burden to place on an employee. Question originally asked by 67.68.191.83 (talk), but prevented from doing so by an edit filter. $Ian.thomson (talk) 00:31, 27 May 2016 (UTC)$


 * From what I've heard/read in various places, the World Wars had a lot to do with men being discouraged from having long hair. Men were supposed to be ready to join and having long hair was taken as a sign that someone wasn't willing to fight and die for their country.  Ian.thomson (talk) 00:33, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * There may also be some influence from 1 Corinthians 11:14.
 * Hairstyles and attitudes/Are they connected?/Are styles we embrace a matter of taste/Or values rejected? --Trovatore (talk) 00:48, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Before the modern era, that really only lead to the western Church saying it was OK to grow one's hair out if one wanted to. The eastern Church actually encouraged long hair, probably following the Nazirite vows which Jesus is sometimes associated with (the shame Paul speaks of probably being seen as a sacrificial burden rather than a sin). Ian.thomson (talk) 01:18, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * World War II may also have had something to do with women's adopting shorter hairstyles. As the article Veronica Lake says, "During World War II, Lake changed her trademark peek-a-boo hairstyle at the urging of the government to encourage women working in war industry factories to adopt more practical, safer hairstyles." Deor (talk) 22:30, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Audrey Hepburn and Liz Taylor, and even Mia Farrow and Twiggy, wore their "pixie cuts" in a time when men were still wearing crew cuts for the most part. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:59, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * We Britons favoured the short back and sides, crew cuts were only for Americans before the skinhead era, unless my memory has failed me. Alansplodge (talk) 10:20, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * A crew cut is a short military haircut, not a skinhead's shaved head. These terms are pretty transparent in their meanings. μηδείς (talk) 18:49, 29 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Apologies, there's a bit of a translation problem; in the UK the general usage of "crew cut" is "a hairdo buzzed close to the scalp". Even so, my point stands, British men (even soldiers) didn't wear their hair like that before the end of the 1960s. Alansplodge (talk) 11:19, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure that's entirely true: I remember an uncle of mine (who would then have been aged about 30) having a crew cut around 1962-63: it sticks in my mind because I remember my parents commenting on it, though I don't remember if that was because it was unusual, or a particular trend at time (in any case, presumably it was a conscious copying of the American style). AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:28, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Well, a bit more research shows that followers of the Mod subculture favoured crew cuts of ¼ inch length, so perhaps you had a trendy uncle. We live and learn. I do remember that gullible American tourists were the butt of many cartoon jokes in magazines like Titbits and they were always shown with cropped hair so that you knew who they were.  Alansplodge (talk) 20:50, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
 * For long hair on men and employability today, it depends on the nature of the employment (of course). I asked my son, who is a software engineer with long auburn curls, if his hair mightn't be a problem withh potential clients sometimes. "Does the boss really want you to sit in on those meetings?" — "Oh, yes, he insists, my hair is one of the firm's greatest assets. It shows clients we've got one real programmer, at least." Bishonen &#124; talk 01:49, 27 May 2016 (UTC).
 * It is worth mentioning that the much-vaunted ENDA bill went to great lengths not to protect people in this situation - even though it would have protected transsexuals in the same situation. This is one reason why it may be viewed as a proposal for "special rights". Wnt (talk) 14:19, 27 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Our article on gamine devotes sections to the 1950s and 1960s. "An elfish young woman, Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday was the archetypal, unforgettable, adorable gamine." Also see bob cut: "Although young girls, actresses and a few "advanced" or fashionable women had worn short hair even before World War I—for example in 1910 the French actress Polaire is described as having "a shock of short, dark hair", a cut she adopted in the early 1890s—the style was not considered generally respectable until given impetus by the inconvenience of long hair to girls engaged in war work." Carbon Caryatid (talk) 23:36, 27 May 2016 (UTC)