I've been eating too much leftover thanksgiving food lately. I can feel my muscles deteriorating to fat, yet i refuse to work out. We'll see how long this lasts.
I've just been thinking for awhile, the image of a woman cutting her hair. It's seen many times in the media (let me point you to Mulan, and the countless music videos about women going through difficult times) as a symbol of- at least for me- independence, a new slate, a new identity. There's something so thrilling about watching a girl spy dye and cut half her hair off in a gas station bathroom.
That image means something quite different to me nowadays after I started looking at it in a new perspective. Perhaps, the woman is exercising the only power she has left, or thinks she has left. She alters what she has control over. She finds she is not so independent, so powerful, so... her own, that she tries to catch just a glimpse of what's left of her by clutching the pair of scissors (this reminds me of Britney Spears' notorious behavior). And i believe there's the same principle behind suicide.
Cutting your own hair as a mini suicide. Did i go too far?
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ReplyDeleteI agree and can relate to what you've written. I've realized the two times I have chopped my hair to my chin have been during very prominent times in my life. This is a very interesting topic. This is also something I've seen, even in commercials. The voice of a woman talks of power as another woman cuts herself a fringe without hesitation. I think the act can be derived from a desire for control - as you've stated - along with ANY other reasons. Same with suicide. I mean, people have committed suicide for religious reasons. a completely selfless act IMO.
ReplyDeleteyou didnt go too far. i think its symbolic of what you were writing. when i read this i thought of how many people have commented on my hair and how i cut it. most people assumed that i was trying to make a statement or start a new chapter in my life. but the funny thing was is that my intentions were neither. i wanted to see what my natural hair looked like and was fed up with perming it. maybe it is a statement i guess, more to myself though. like whether or not i can be brave enough to love me in my natural skin. anywho...just my perspective!
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