Britney Spearheads a Movement?
Britney Spearheads a Movement? by Roxanne McDonald
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“Cat in the Rain.� Jo March. Della. Lieutenant Jordan O’Neil. Britney Spears. |
What do all of the above women have in common? They cut their own hair. What do they not share in common? Well, technically, Britney is not a character in a film or book. Or is she? Has she become a character of popular culture, as so many celebrities are snared into becoming?
The questions have come up, the rumors have run the gamut: is Britney making a feminist statement out of revenge against a husband who does not pay enough attention to her, as did Cat (Catherine) in Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain�? She didn’t shave her once goldie locks to sell them and get some cash for a train ticket or a watch fob, as did, respectively, Jo in Little Women cut her hair so she’d have emergency travel money, or Della in The Gift of the Maji, so she’d have a Christmas gift for her mate. She didn’t know (or did she?) that hair is as significant to the Talmud as it is in the Bible, and therefore was making a break-up statement to ex “fling� Isaac Cohen. And she’s not, as far as we know enlisting.
She is in rehab. She was big on making changes to her hair at signpost changes in her personal/public life.
As E! Online’s Joal Ryan (one of the best pop culture writers on the web) notes, “In the beginning, the hair was worn in pigtails. Then it got freer and longer. Then shorter. Then darker. Then blonder. Then longer. Then darker…. But no hairstyle provoked more reaction than no hairstyle. The close shave was, depending on the theory or rumor, a cry for help, a bid for publicity, or even an attempt to avoid a drug test.â€?
As Ryan also says, “Maybe Spears was making a statement, or maybe she wasn’t. Either way, she made one.â€?
And there’s the thing. Had she been one of our college buddies who shaves her head at the end of every major exam or one of our greased-up mega-heroes who shaves his head so he won’t show his male pattern baldness but we think it is so he can look neo-futuristic, ala Bruce Willis or Vin Diesel, we would not have spilled gallons of ink on theorizing.
But since she is Britney Spears, we have to ooh and ahh and analyze and theorize. Writers like Mike Liebner (of TV Robot and Celebrity Robot) hate this, and suggest we just leave her alone.
Writers and professors of gender studies, like Diana York Blaine of USC, point to politics. Sexual politics.
And culture points to the inevitable: if you are in any way advanced enough that you understand or appreciate or are part of the progression of unisexuality, you might shave your head as you nod it toward androgyny. Or, if you are a character in a book, a film, or the high-profile state that is celebrity, you might just shave your head for a significant reason, a motivated reason, or no reason at all, knowing that you will make a statement after which several possible interpretations will follow.
Britney Spears at Celebrity Spider
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