Remembering the Femme in Feminism: Laurie Penny and Short Hair

A couple days ago, Laruie Penny wrote a piece for the New Statesmen titled, “Why patriarchy fears the scissors: for women, short hair is a political statement.” Her piece was in response to Return of King’s idiotic and misogynistic piece about women with short hair. Some folks have loved Penny’s article. Some folks have offered some great intersectional critiques of it: Nocciola Nazgul’s tweets and Sydette’s tweets about black women’s experiences with long hair and Lauren Chief Elk’s tweets about the fact that long hair isn’t gendered for everyone. I think Nocciola Nazgul really hit the heart of the issue with the following:

you can write about your own experience if you want. i’m just tired of them being universalized to all.

From Penny’s responses to the various critiques I linked to above, it looks to me as though Penny didn’t intend for her experience in her piece come across as universal. But, of course, intent is not magic. It isn’t so much that the article is wrong (though bits of it are); it’s that it’s incomplete. For example, she glosses right over the racism inherent in the fictional “ideal woman” of American culture. She also glosses right over the relationship between long hair and ‘passing’ for trans women, without even acknowledging that her experience is specifically that of a cis woman. She talks about women as though referring to a single group, and yet assumes whiteness, straightness, cisness, etc.

Which brings me to the part of Penny’s article that I have the most trouble with:

To be frank, my hair is a great deal gayer than I am, and sometimes accidentally cashes cheques that my heart and loins don’t deliver, to the extent that I’ve considered letting my hair go out out to Candy Bar to play all by itself. It’s fabulous enough to pull it off.

This is enough to actually piss me off; to bring out the snark. – What, pray tell, is gay hair? Last I checked, my hair did hot have a sexuality.

I am being purposefully obtuse. What Penny means is that short hair is generally recognised as a signifier for non-heterosexuality in women. And this is true. But rather than fodder for a straight woman’s joke; it’s actually indicative of a real problem that queer femme women face.

And that brings me to the critique of Penny’s article that resonated with me the most: a series of tweets by “jay, the nerd kid,” which I’ve storified and quoted a bit of below:

Let’s talk for a bit about the assumption that presenting as femme is inherently unfeminist, because that’s total bullshit…By deriding femme presentation markers as lesser, we contribute to the devaluation of femmeness in all its forms…Portraying femme presentation as kow-towing to the patriarchy ignores that for some people, presenting as femme is a political statement…My queerness is taken less seriously because I present as femme…Feminists, including queer feminists, are just helping to reinforce patriarchal stereotypes by shunning femmeness.

It’s really worth it to read the rest of Jay’s tweets. So go, read them. I’m not really going to analyse them as I think they speak for themselves. Rather, I just want to add my own perspective.

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This whole thing’s reminded me of one of my tweets from December:

See, I’ve had my hair every length from completely shaved off, to almost-down-to-my-butt, and a billion styles in between. I went for a period of a few years where I only ever wore skirts. I went for a period of years where I only wore clothes from the men’s section in shops. For years I never painted my nails. Then for awhile, there, I was changing my nail polish every week. At one point, the only jewelry I wore were silver studs in my ears and a silver nose ring. Now, well take a look:

And that’s not even all of it

I still own a lot of men’s t-shirts. I still absolutely hate the double-standard when it comes to purses so I only own one which I rarely use. (I prefer backpacks). Some days the only jewelry I wear are silver studs in my ears and my nose ring. And some days I wear all the jewelry I can. I haven’t painted my nails in awhile. My favourite dress is the one that shows the most cleavage. So on, and so forth…

Here’s the thing: when I appear more masculine, people comment. When I appear more feminine, people comment. My feminine appearance is perceived as indicative of me “growing up.” My masculine appearance is perceived as indicative of my queerness. Short hair or long hair, make-up or no make-up, dress or trousers; people always feel the need to comment on it. That is the underlying problem that Laurie Penny’s article fails to address;  the way in which white, western culture (including mainstream feminism) is constantly commenting on and passing judgement on women’s appearances. Always underpinning those judgements and comments is the underlying hatred of the feminine and denial of women’s access to the masculine.

And this is compounded by the underlying racism of white, western culture (including mainstream feminism), which comments on and passes judgement on women of colour’s hair and appearance. And this is compounded by the underlying cissexism of white, western culture (including mainstream feminism), which comments on and passes judgement on trans people’s hair and appearance. And this is compounded by the underlying heteronormativity of white, western culture (including mainstream feminism), which comments on and passes judgement on queer women’s hair and appearance…

So, yes for some women, short hair is a political statement.

And for some women, long hair is a political statement.

“The real political statement is not long or short hair – it’s daring to be unapologetically yourself, no matter what.” - Jay the nerd kid