new thread
In England it is not uncommon for a guy with long hair to be walking about and then recieve a comment about his hair such as 'get a haircut' or 'are you a boy or a girl'.
All my friends and I have long hair and we take pride in it but i hate the whole stereotypical view of male in which we should have short hair.
I am not sure how that started but hundreds of years ago men had long hair and they were just as manly and strong as any other male.
I not sure what the situation is in the USA or other countries.
Discuss-
Why people are so narrow minded about guys with long hair
I think a lot of it has to do with insecurities with themselves. Soooo they feel they have to do that because they wouldn't be secure enough to grow theirs out.
Hello,
I have been to London, as a visitor, and not once was I hassled about my hair. I live in Montreal, Québec, and long hair is not an issue, as there are lots of longhairs in Montreal, even though they are still a minority.
About the customary frowning upon long hair on men: This dates from very long ago. Everyone knows, that in the sixties, long hair on men caused episodes of rage amongst the "straight" folks. It was much more commont to be told to get a haircut, say in 1967-1970. The comments tapered off until 1975, and after 1976 people started saying that "long hair is out of style".
Reactions about long hair also prevaled, in other long-haired epochs, including the periods mentioned in your history books. Chances are, that famous people, like Newton had his share of comments, from a certain breed of people, then called "Puritains". During the English Civil War, they were called "Roundheads". Conversely, the "Roundheads" called the longhairs "Cavaliers" (They sided with the king), or even more pejoratively, "Oinkers" (Sound of the pig, sounds vaguely like "longhair").
The Passage I am linking comes from a book titled "Customs of New England", where Charles Chauncy, then president of Harvard College, makes a bitchy sermon, in 1649 against long hair on students, and the clergymen of his time.
You can scroll back to page 187, to read more on the repression of long hair in the middle ages as well, and a strange fad, called the "lovelocks", where men's hair grew to the shoulders, but one lock on the side was allowed to grow longer, and tied with a bow.
Have a nice day,
Georges in Montreal.
Like all cities in England there inhabitants contain chavs (wiggers or townies) these sort of people do not like people who look different from themselves. They have shaven heads, we have longhair so they would take a disliking to us. I live in the county of Cornwall where there is a good amount of longhairs and fewer chavs.
Anyway regarding the history on round heads and cavaliers. Most men used to have longish hair but when the civil war came those who opposed the king cut their hair short hence the nickname "round heads". Having short hair was actually laughed upon at this time.
The time for change is NOW! When walking through your city you should once again scoff at the "roundheads." When hanging out with fellow longhairs you should laugh when a "short" walks by and make disparaging remarks. Let's take back what was once ours.
Or ask them if they've got their louse problem under control yet? I'm a fan of novels set in "Nelson's Navy" and a couple of them talk about having to have off the long pigtails of the seamen to try to control vermin.
AndrewB
Heh, while I admire your spirit, I think I'd have to disagree with you (unless you're kidding, o'course.)
I think that kind of reaction would be a lot like keying someone's Hummer to "show them" when in reality they might not be anti-environmentalist assholes at all, aside from driving a vehicle that gets relatively poor MPG. Not to say that some Hummer drivers might be that way (I once saw a license plate that said "7mpg"), but even then there's no reason to take a negative stance toward them.
Anyway, my point is basically that I don't think becoming hostile or disdainful of short-haired people is a particularly good idea unless the individuals in question have actually done/said something hostile or disdainful to you. My philosophy is that you should always try to affect change through positive actions rather than negative ones.
There's my (kinda long-winded) two cents, anyhoo.
Keying somebody's Hummer doesn't offer any insight to the driver about the way his actions may be impacting the environment therefore does little to encourage positive environmental practices. Expressing distaste for somebody while making sure to reference their short hair as a major contributing factor of your negative perception allows the party on the receiving end to make the connection that their short hair is what is causing the problem. Consistent and widespread disdain of the short haired population will eventually influence modern taste and allow the current long haired minority to rise to power.
Perhaps, or it could create an even stronger backlash from the short haired majority...which would not end well. Either way, ignorance and intolerance is not fitting for either side of the spectrum, wether we become the majority or not someday we cant insult those who are not like us.
To each his own, remember?
My sentiments exactly. Why in the world would anyone care whether or not their particular demographic was in the majority? In fact, I rather prefer being in a minority, myself.
It's not a problem if someone has short hair; it's a problem if someone is a dick to you because you are different from them, long hair or no.
Your message resonates with truth and compassion. I've got a new and better solution. We host an international long-hair festival and have every proud long-hair in the world donate what they can and we buy an island so we can live without oppression and scissors as free men in a free society...
...and engineer some nukes.
...'scuse me, did you just refer to nuclear weapons production as a method of dealing with stereotyping and intolerance toward people with different hair lengths?
I think you're joking, in which case that's pretty funny. Never can tell on these here interweb tubes, though... ;)
The term'townies' is generally used by university students to describe the local population. This is sometimes seen as derogatory, but is most often used to describe bands of local youths that oick on students. They could well be chavs, although in my day they were often punks or skinheads. I assume that wiggers are either the same as chavs or someone equally boneheaded?
You will see in theis link that do-gooders bitched about long hair
even in times, when you thought long hair was the custom of the time, like the 17th century times of the Cavaliers, and the Three Musketeers.
Another reason not mentioned is that armies around the world shave their soldiers' heads as a form of discipline. As a result we have two problems:
1) Managers, executives etc. in companies and other organisations view anyone with long hair as undisciplined and messy, as well as hard to control. But this is more a domination issue than a hygiene issue.
2) This is also very important to explain today's trend, and also why there was the hippie movement. Precisely for the reason that armies shave their soldier's heads, after the First and Second World War that affected so many people, many men had their hair shaved off, and most kept it that way after the war. This is probably why the way to rebel was to grow long hair (as well as other factors) in the 60s and thereafter, until the 80s. Of course trends like keeping your hair short is passed on through generations by parents who bully or brainwash their children.
Intresting theory... I love it. It explains a lot.
plus:
3) when in army a longhair gets shaved off they brainwash them more so they would think that longhair is feminine and "evil" or sth...
It is purely to do with the army in the first world war and possibly the boar war. They had to shave their heads or cut it shorts to clamp down on diseases etc in the trenches.
Nowadays it is the ''norm'' and anything that goes against it is deemed as wrong or weird.
People take the piss out of people that aren't like them, it's a fact of life.
Annoying but true.
Before 1964 and the Beatles, I never saw a longhaired male. Men and boys in the USA had crew cuts. Nobody ever questioned it; this was just the way it was done. Then, the appearance of the Beatles made a lot of men ask themselves if maybe longer hair would look better on themselves. Although the Beatles' hair in 1964 looks pretty conservative by today's standards, it created a huge controversy. Those who are old enough will remember those times. Long hair on men gradually started to become more popular. I wore my hair long in the late 60's and throughout the 70's. In grammar school and to a lesser degree in high school, people could be quite cruel. There were several incidents where other boys actually took scissors and snipped off some of my locks in school. Neither school authorities, nor my parents took it seriously, but I was furious and incidents like these only made me more determined to keep wearing my hair the way I liked. Today, I live near San Diego, California. Longhairs are more common around here because many surfers, skateboarders, and rock musicians make their homes here. I haven't been overtly hassled about my hair for over 25 years. Things are different though, in other parts of the USA. Three years ago, I drove to Chicago to visit family. I had to stop for food and gas in places like Cheyenne, Wyoming and Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Although no one said anything to me, the stares of disapproval were plentiful. And my California license plate insured that I was overcharged for things like hotel rooms. I could ramble on about this for many pages, but don't want to hog the board. The bottom line is, long hair on men is cool in California, and probably in most major US cities. It is still frowned upon in small towns and - shall I say it - places where people are less educated.
Stormy
Never come across this once. As a 55 year old with a pony tale one might have expected it!
I live in Puerto Rico, and long hair is not uncommon on men and boys. To be sure it was far more common back in the '70s and '80s than it is today. Most long hairs are men/boys with relatively straight hair. I like curly hair too, but there seems to be a dislike for very curly hair nowadays, and afro's are looked down upon. That said, there is a wide variety of hair types and styles, so I don't think there is much in the way of "narrow mindedness" in the culture here as a whole.
anotherDavid
My own experience in the US which has an abundance of narrow minded people has been mild no major comments or anything nasty. You might expect to find bad attitudes about longhair in the deep south but surprise!!! you'll find a lot of longhair there especially among Civil War re-enactors.
Kevin
Personnaly, I don't receive often a bad comment about my hair. It's often the opposite !
Maybe, French are less "narrow-minded", I don't know. But I have to say that I live among guys who are about 20, students. Perhaps this generation is more open-minded.
But, it is true that I'm often astonished when people who lives in the USA (for example) speaks about their problems with hair and society.