Every time that I think I have heard “the most stupid thing evah!” coming out of our Precious Snowflake colleges, out comes another that’s just that much worse. Politically Correct speech, made up gender bender terms, the totalitarian reactions if you don’t adhere to what someone demands, and the utter bizarreness of what these kids dig up (at the coaching of Professors that seemed to be consumed with grievances of all types) and stating that THIS is something “important” – who can keep up with the ever changing Totem Pole of Badness? Who WANTS to do this? Can’t we get college kids to start swallowing gold fish again, or trying to stuff as many people as they can into a small car or a phone booth (er, sorry, showing my age there; is there such a thing as reverse ageism?)?
But I never had the inkling that HAIR is now the newest source of oppression. Seriously, there’s a “HAIR privilege”?
I cringed when I read this – HOW can the hair that grows naturally on your head be a “privilege”? And the only thing that is “oppressive” is that sometimes I can’t comb it to look the way that I want it to. But this young fragile personage must have stayed up for DAYS trying to figure out how to spin, convolute, explode, and otherwise mangle up the concept that hair is, well, a mark of badness (shhh – and how much do Americans spend every year to NOT be bald?) – her name is Yvonne Nguyen and she’s developed this new First World catastrophe (reformatted, emphasis mine):
A Villanova student claims that shaving her head helped her confront her “hair privilege,” as well as “society’s oppressive gender norms.” “I’m not a big fan of being oppressed, and I don’t like it,” said Yvonne Nguyen in a Facebook live video where she shaved her head on camera to Beyoncé songs. Since this article’s publication, she has taken down the video.
Ah, sure. Unless one is a masochist, who does want to be oppressed?
Sidenote: The masochist pleads “Oppress me! Oppress me!”. The sadist say “er, no” and walks away, laying down the scissors.
Heh!
In an op-ed for the student newspaper, Nguyen said that the oppressive societal gender norms had made her feel like she was only a “true girl” if her hair was “long, straight and silky.” “Shaving my head enabled me to be reflective of ways society forces me to conform to labels that I didn’t choose,” she wrote. “Shaving my head liberated me, as I allowed myself to be faithful to my values and genuine self.”
You know, I just went to Mustache Pete’s in Laconia today and got a haircut. I can tell you that I didn’t feel any more liberated for losing all that hair than I did before. Did feel a bit sad though – each time I get it cut, it is clear that I’m going grey when I look at the floor afterwards – can I consider that oppression-by-razor?
“At the same time, I’m also very privileged,” Nguyen added in her Facebook video, explaining that her bald head was a show of solidarity for people with cancer or alopecia. “I would like to remember the privilege I have in terms of being able to grow my hair out,” she wrote in the accompanying post.
Hmm, I would have said a show of solidarity with those that don’t have a firm grasp on reality or those that can’t adequately set real priorities. Is it solidarity, like trees falling in the forest, if none of those folks know about it? Look, if she’s donating her hair, good on her. But to make herself something she’s not is foolish. Being able to grow hair is NATURAL.
Your privilege doesn’t come from that – one COULD say that you are privileged because you’re at one of the better schools in the nation. I would say, however, that you earned it with your grades to get it. That’s not “privilege’, that’s either a natural intellectual ability or intense hard work and effort.
…Reflecting on her decision nearly three weeks later, Nguyen said that going bald was part of a choice “to be a woman for others.” “One must forgo some of their undeserved privileges to provide justice for others,” she concluded. “Are you willing to shave?”
Hmm, maybe you are privileged in thinking much more of yourself than you really are. Oh wait – that’s not “privileged”, it is called “self-puffery” with a heaping dash of stupidness.
I can’t WAIT to see what’s gonna be next….sheesh….
(H/T: HeatStreet)
