Shaved heads, Hysteria, Moaning, and Privilege
How free are women really under the influence of the patriarchy?
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And a quick disclaimer: In the words of
: any troll content I receive is fair game for content. I’m no longer hiding the identities of the people that spewed misogyny at me in 2019 and beyond!
In February of 2007, Britney Spears shaved her head.
The press told us she was “teetering on the edge of a breakdown”, having a “meltdown”—her face splayed across magazines along with the words “HELP ME”.
Without much questioning or context, most of us agreed with the narrative that Britney was an unfit, mentally unwell, and dangerous mother. Many things led up to this label, but the nail in the coffin was her shaving her head.
How could she get rid of her hair, a thing that made her beautiful, a marker of her femininity? Britney willingly cutting her hair meant she had lost “her beauty”, and thus, her sanity. The message was: anyone who willingly becomes “unattractive” by society’s standards must be crazy.
Later, Britney was admitted to a treatment center for her mental health. We may never pinpoint whether her mental health decline resulted from genetic factors, the stress of early fame, public breakdown through negative press and exploitation, or a combination of all three.
Regardless of her mental state, the way the public, paparazzi, media, and fans reacted to the change in her body and appearance was harmful and unwarranted. And it shed a light on how we’ve come to fear women who stray from traditional feminine roles and behaviors.
“Getting a Britney” soon became common slang for women having a breakdown—and toward women who would even just cut their hair drastically shorter. People used this phrase with Doja Cat, and even with me when I cut off my hair in 2019.
I’d just returned from a long Instagram break after spending the previous five years building a massive Instagram community on my blog and Instagram @leefromamerica.