Short hair doth not a lesbian make by Siobhan Casey

To put it fairly lightly: I had a tough summer – along with the rest of my family – in 2002. I had my hair three different general lengths in the same
year: all fairly big changes. In the spring, my hair was a few inches shorter than what it is now (between my shoulder blades now), highlighted blonde against my usually mousey brown. Just before my fifteenth birthday, I got my hair cut and layered to chin/shoulder length. About three months later, a week or so back into school I would guess, I wanted a sort of overhaul (it was a tough summer). Therefore, I got my hair cropped very short and dyed red. It matched my extreme year. I walked into class the next school day (without having the dye put in yet) and I knew people were looking at me. There was one girl in particular who just could not stop staring at my hair. I remember it as one of near disbelief, shock, and (I could be wrong but let’s take it hypothetically) disgust. I don’t think she took her eyes off me for about ten seconds.
I found it pretty humorous, thank God; I could possibly have gotten upset about it. On the other hand, I did not get along well with this girl and many of the other girls in the class, and as my haircut was a conscious decision on my part to dramatically change the way I looked, it was a kind of turning point of sorts in that I didn’t care so much anymore what this girl or others thought of me. It gave me (perversely?) a bit of a kick to see how such a small matter could upset how another person/other people view a person – a kind of win to me to see how I could go against their system and watch their shocked reaction. That feeling of having gotten one up on them (her, whatever ), for once, remained with me. Even though they seemed to continue to see me as a bit…I don’t know: naïve? sensitive? too diligent? weird? It later occurred to me that, after this incident, they thought I was a lesbian.
At this point, I have to say that I don’t view gays or lesbians (bisexuals
either) as being bad people. I’m not sure that it’s a ‘life choice’ as some make it out to be, but I’m not sure if people are born with it either. But I wouldn’t like to engage in gossip about a person’s sexuality, apart from asking who said whatever, if the person/people is/are sure (if they are not, maybe they shouldn’t speculate in little huddles), or perhaps to say that it doesn’t make them a bad person or whatever. I don’t want to make myself sound like a self-righteous hypocrite here (neither would I want to be one) and I don’t mean to push my opinions onto people. I’m confused about a lot of things and am probably not the best person to come to on certain matters.
^_^
In any case, I now think to myself, “What a stereotypical view!” I wonder if they knew what my summer had been like that they would have viewed me in a kinder or at least more respectful manner. The school which I attended for my five second level years was not a very open one on sexuality: at least heterosexual attraction and shenanigans would be the norm and laughed about or talked about as normal, but I have a strong feeling that their was an unwelcoming atmosphere among students towards gays. I couldn’t see anyone coming out in that school without others taking the opportunity to tease, make jokes, or attempt to humiliate that person. I consider that treatment as wrong, whatever they think about gays. It was funny how, just because I had one prominent feature which I shared with stereotyped lesbians, I was marked out, perhaps not by all as definitely a lesbian, but possibly put in that picture by some. Short hair is not the usual style that girls choose.
Longer hair is supposed to be more appealing to males and I can understand that, in a way: it balances out with a guy who has short hair (again very widely accepted as the norm). Cropped hair = male hair. So the theory goes that men don’t fancy women with cropped hair as much as girls with Tahitian-waterfall-shampoo-advert-worthy long hair. (I’m OTT, but you get the point!)
If lesbians have a higher level of testosterone in their bodies, they may go for cropped hair, more like a boy’s haircut. But not all! In my case, I’m straight and, during a very difficult year of my life so far, I had my hair cut off to release something from myself (so I theorise) and was consequently seen in a strange light by fellow students. I walked into class a few days later and my hair was dyed red, possibly more acceptable to the girl who obviously didn’t share my taste in hair-cuts!!! That was the plan:
short, red hair. But it was educational to see the (over-)reaction of one particular person in the middle place.