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Last week I had another weird experience whilst I was back in the UK, (specifically Portsmouth on the south coast.) I'd taken to occasionally wearing my hair in a half tail, particularly on bad days so I kinda expected some comments, but nothing prepared me for this.
I was ordering some drinks at a bar and this hard looking guy wearing a works jacket and sporting a skinhead with a 5 oclock shaddow that could have sunk Europe into darkness, turns around to me and says:
"Your on drugs, aren't u?"
"Excuse me?"
"Don't deny it, I can see it in your eyes!"
I check my eyes in a mirror hanging behind the bar, they aren't bloodshot, and my pupils are wide. Confused I reply that I think he's mistaken.
"Either that or your gay! That's it you're Gay aren't you?" he continues... looking around at the back of my head.
Ahh the penny drops.... its a hair thing... I must be either Gay or on Drugs to wear my hair longer than 2 inches... or worse in a half tail.
Why am I destined to continually encounter the Eternally Biggoted?
My Teenage cousin who I visted during my stay, took to calling me a Woman, because my hair was long (or longish.)
This didn't take much to rebuke, as the basis of his argument was that women have long hair so that made me a woman... So I simply pointed out half a dozen OAP's... all ladies with short hair...
"Hmmm," I said, "they have short hair, and you have short hair... I guess that makes you an 'OLD WOMAN!'"
He didn't approach the topic again after that...
But I ask you, what is wrong with Britain? Why is the place so eternally biggotted??? I live in Tenerife (Spain) and I've never had a snide comment made about my hair by a Spaniard or Canarian, period. But I go back to Blighty and I get shit... whats with my country??
Nothing really - it has a hard core of bad, ignorant and silly people encouraged by poor and fundamentally corrupt government at all levels, but then the same applies to most countries. Maybe in Spain people are more laid back.
The Spanish tend to have a hyper-traditional view of life and the world. Luckily, this extends to being polite and considerate. This means that they tend not to have long hair and tend to dress conservatively, but they are not in the least likely to insult anyone who is different from themselves. I have never experienced the slightest discourtesy from any Spaniard.
The UK is a more open soceity, with all the good and bad things that implies. Skinheads in the UK are scarey people. Normally I would give as good as I get in trading insults, but with skinheads I would make an exception. If one of them insulted my hair I would not feel inclined to say much of anything, as I would be inwardly thankful that I had not been physically attacked.
When I first came to live in the US the number of guys with crewcuts totally freaked me out. In the UK it indicates someone who is dangerous and unstable. To begin with, every time I saw a crewcut I would scan the room and check the location of all the exits. And this is **not** because I have long hair, although I have. After a while it dawned upon me that a crewcut is not a danger sign in the US atall, and that persons with crewcuts are usually as harmless as the next guy.
Now didn't Don Adrian de Moxica, Christopher Columbus and others have long hair in the film '1492:The Conquest of Paradise'?
Of course Moxica was cast as the villain in the film -- arrogant and racist. (Click link below)
The question is, did Spanish men or Spanish nobility have long hair back then?
Perhaps it is due to the effects of years of Margaret Thatcher, continued Thatcherism and the hollowing out of UK manufacturing industry.
Britain under the traditional Clause IV Labour Party wasn't like that.
I left Britain after graduating in 1979 and only visited briefly after that.
Well, I'm sure you realise that the Skinheads are generally associated with the neo-Nazis like the National Front, British National Party and others, while the longhairs were associated with liberals and the left.
You'd generally find a fair number of longhairs on Anti-Nazi League, anti-war, anti-nuclear marches for instance.
You didn't say whether you are Caucasian, Asian or Black but I didn't hear of Skinheads having any particular antagonism towards longhairs per se, especially not Caucasian longhairs.
As for the crew cut and the Americans, it's a hairstyle of the GIs who all get a crew cut so most Americans with a crew cut aren't Skinheads and instead are "regular Joes."
It's just not proper to go against the grain...
...then you get the Sex Pistols.
But the guy was drinking, which is a legal drug and as we know guys who gay bash tend to be trying to mask their own gay feelings...I guess he was really telling you about himself.
Don't worry about it so much. I constantly dissapoint peope at college parties by not having drugs/pot to sell them. It's a stereotype that has been placed on long hairs for decades. Alcohol effects people's senses and ways of thought, so it makes sense that one would be more prone to stereotyping when lacking reason and rational thought.
As for the gay comments, they'll slow down once you are out of the awquard stage. That's how it worked for me. Seriously, though, why argue with people like that? Just end it with "Yes, I am gay. I hope you don't have a problem with it." Then leave. Who cares if the person was misinformed?
A few days ago, I was visiting my girlfriend at her place of employment. A middle-aged female co-worker of hers later made a comment to my girlfrind about her "alternative lifestyle." The entire time, despite my two inch chin gotee and male-styled wardrobe, she thought I was a woman! Some people are very closed-minded and adhere to traditional fashion. You just gotta learn to ignore them.
This kind of crap's gonna happen. It's to be expected. You've just gotta learn not to care what anyone thinks.
My dad and I were once a target for a bunch of teenagers. They started on us while we were waiting for my brother to come out of his school prom. We got a bit hurt, but not half as much as some of them did. It's kind of weird seeing your mechanic dad destroying someone for the first time (never seen him fight before you see).
I don't condone violence, but one of the pussies pulled my hair from behind, so I kind of flipped out. Just keep out of dodgy looking pubs etc, don't walk around rough areas at night unless you're with a few mates (I use a bike around certain areas, until I get driving), learn how to kick ass, run like a sod if there's more than one of them, and generally look after yourself.
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JoNty
Didn't come to that, this guy wasn't agressive. It was just totally out of the blue and his audacity was almost funny...
Still, pisses me off that so many people are closed minded back in the UK.
Times may change, but not anytime soon.
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JoNty
They arent just because one drunk wanker actually said what spaniards are too wimpy to say. you have a go at people for discriminatin long haired people, but your discriminatin brits
HYPOCRITE!
I wonder if I live next door to someone who is one of the type to be avoided. He has very short hair, in his late 30's and when I thought I could trust him enough to come into my back yard he politely told about his brother and him "driving an El Camino and chasing hippies" and it "being fun" and that his brother may come to live with him. I later realized what he said is probably a veiled threat. Not all with short hair are bigots--but a number of things indicates that there could be problems living next to someone like him. I suspect his dislike of me has more to do with my speech disorder and and maybe a noise complaint rather than long hair. I spent money buying a new house in a good neighborhood only to find that I probably will have to spend thousands to sell and buy another house in order to get away from a problem neighbor. Although my main reason for moving it to get a house with a better yard and more privacy.
Dude, you are the represeentative for all the rest of us to the eternally biggotted--or terminally biggotted. Sorry you seem to get nailed a lot in this way, man. But you know the reason: jealousy. I can say that because about this time last year I was sporting a 3" mohawk, sides shaved, tight jeans, 14-hole rangers--the whole trip, man. And then in March I just got tired of it--the lifestyle, the look--and began letting my hair grow out. It's only about 5" now (two trims since March to even things out a little). Still, my old friends either don't recognize me or pass some pretty lame judgments on me--just like you. It's pure jealousy. I can say that. Most skins tire of the lifestyle but feel trapped. If hair grew instantly, they'd be happy to return to wearing their hair longers. But they coax each other to stay loyal to skins, punks, etc. So you just keep on growing it out, man, and understand the rest of us are damn proud of you for taking it on the chin as often as you seem to. Josh (in Denver)
Damn, it seems like you got a lot of rough characters in the UK. I always hear about long hairs being harrassed there. Is the UK all like that? Well anyways stay strong man, that skinhead was probably just jealous because he's bald.
Dont get me wrong there are good people in the UK too, most of my mates are pro-individualism and judge people on character, not on misguided preconceptions.
But your probably right about your second point. The main reason for shaving your head is that you're going bald and have gracefully given up the fight...
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There is hardly any rough characters in the Uk (apart from scallys)!And we believe you arent on drugs!but i hate long hair that is past shoulder length so dont go there ghosts_cloak (who happens to be my cousin) I can although, after reading some of the posts see how the skinhead mistook you for being gay! Hairdryers!Round brushers! Straightners!???? im a girl and i only usea hairdryer when i NEED to ie going out in 5mins. The most attractive hair length is shoulder length.
see you
Phew! I'm glad you said that. I was a student in the U.K. in the 1970's and long hair was quite fashionable then, even though you could probably count the number of longhairs among my university's 4,000 students on the fingers of your hand.
In the earlier part of the 70's longhairs were more hippie or left/liberal radical and towards the end of the 70's and into the 80's longhairs were more heavy-metal -- ala Iron Maiden, Kiss, etc.
However when I visited in the 90's I learned that long hair was less fashionable up in Salford and Greater Manchester area but there still were some around though there were more in Central London.
I don't think so... back in April this year, I've been to the very same town (i. e. Portsmouth) in southern England, and I've never been harrassed for my long hair, nor did the three other longhairs I was with (three folks from Gay & Bi Longhairs on the Internet, by the way)
But in fact, it appeared to me that currently long hair is definitely out of fashion in the UK, at least in London and the surrounding areas. The only real longhair I can recall from that Easter week ironically was a not very attractive bare-armed tattooed redneck with reddish five-day stubble, waiting with his little daughter at the central bus station at Newport on the Isle of Wight, whose hair was about at mid-back.
And Steve "Hantsbear" Brittain, who took me around Portsmouth and Wight later told me of Birmingham's heavy metal scene (which also seems to be a mainly working class setting) when I asked him about the UK's "pole of male longhairedness"...
See you in Khyberspace - http://home.arcor.de/yadgar/khyberspace/index-e.html
Yadgar
Thanks for the comments guys...
As you probably already know, I don't take many of these idiotic views to heart, in fact I find them rather sad... or atleast I get to entertain myself with by becoming a smart arse and making these prats look stupid.
But anyway, its nice to know that it doesnt just happen to me. Meantime I find these comments vaguely amusing, so unless anyone would rather I didn't I'll continue to post them as they are received.
-Sorted-
On the other hand how many good experiences have you had arising from your hair?
This guy is obviously an ingnorant, intolerant bigot and he seems the type who would try and take it out on Blacks, Asians, short people, fat people, skinny people, gays, you name it, so it's best to treat people like him with the contempt they deserve.
Had I been standing beside you in that bar, I would probbaly be too shy to say "hey you got nice hair."