Follicular Transgressions

Several times over the past year I’ve come across news articles pertaining to boys’ hair. One was about a 4-year-old boy who was suspended from preschool for having long hair. After a two-month long battle between the school district and the boy’s parents, the child was allowed to attend school again so long as he wore his hair braided against his scalp so that no hair was “touching his collar.” In a similar case another boy in Texas was suspended for refusing to cut his shoulder-length locks. In both cases the school administrations justified the suspensions by citing dress code policies that specifically disallowed long hair on boys, but not girls.

Interestingly, there are no news stories about girls being suspended from school for having short hair and the reason for that is simply because school dress codes do not regulate the length (or lack thereof) of girls’ hair. While girls and women may face ridicule for having stereotypically “masculine” hairstyles (think Britney Spears’s shaved head incident), such gender transgressions do not necessitate formal rules and regulations. And, even in areas where such rules do not exist, men and boys who transgress gender norms are subject to far more dire social consequences than girls and women who do the same. The story of Roy Jones, a 17-month-old (months, not years!) who was beaten to death in August by his stepfather, really epitomizes this. When questioned by police, Jones’ stepfather said explained that he was trying to “toughen” the child up: "I was trying to make him act like a boy instead of a little girl. I never struck that kid that hard before. A one-time mistake, and I am going to do 20 years." This story also made me think of the case of Larry King, a 15-year-old high school student who wore high heels and makeup and was murdered by a fellow classmate in 2008.

While girls are also often tormented for not conforming to gender norms, they are allowed a much wider range of gender expression than boys. Girls may play sports, yet it is unacceptable for boys to want to participate in ballet. Girls may wear pants, but boys who wear dresses are subject to derision. It is all right to name a girl Taylor, but nobody would dare name a son Mary. What is ironic is that the system that allows girls greater gender expression does so because it is a system in which women are devalued. For a man to wear a dress, dance ballet, be an interior decorator, or have sex with other men is for him to behave femininely. In essence, a man who does any of these things has lowered himself to the social position of a woman; he reminds other “normal” men that gender is flexible, not a biological given, thus inciting their fears and insecurities which are expressed in the form of gender policing.