November 8, 2008 | Eavan Stephens
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Now that Sarah Palin’s brief and spectacularly ephemeral star has, for now at least, burnt out brilliantly in the international night sky, a small sigh of relief has been exhaled around the world.
But the relief is just as palpable for reasons other than having someone who can’t distinguish between nations and continents at the helm of the world’s most powerful nation. I’m a brunette with a fringe, you see, and I wear spectacles. For reasons entirely to do with slackness and nothing to do with fashion, I very frequently like to pile my hair up on top of my head, albeit for a lot less than a $10,000 a month stylist. For the past two months I’ve had to think twice. I’ve cringed as I’ve walked out the door wearing a red jumper, only to have some wit gafaw at my hair and ask me if I can pronounce “nuclear.”
Now safely banished back to the wilds of Alaska, I can, I hope, have my hair back, although I’m not sure if it’s something I want back. Even Tina Fey has reportedly hung up her wig. Bearing some passing resemblance to a 44 year old Alaskan, gun-toting, lipstick-wearing, pitt-bull-hockey-mum is not exactly the ideal look for a young woman about town. Unless of course I travel to the States and trawl through Republican drinking dens, where I might see more than my fair share of suitors. Quantity, not quality, some might argue.
Political hair is a vexed issue, not confined to the States alone. Who could forget the media consternation when almost a year ago the hot BBQ starter conversation about the then new Prime Minister was not how he was going to turn Australia around, but the raffish length of his side burns? Surely the in-topic for “recessionistas” has long been not the shortening “Posh bob” but the ever evolving “Julia” cut? For just how has Tony Abbott been working his “et tu, Brutus,” Caesar–style? And what does it all mean exactly?
But as in almost all things, the issue of Political Hair takes on a deeper and more vexed meaning in America. Far from frivolous, Political Hair is a volatile issue that imports more than would first seem. Hair is never just hair. Blogs have been brimming with wonder at the mechanics behind Michelle Obama’s glossy mane — whether or not she uses a chemical “relaxer” and the politics of African-American hair in the public sphere. In-depth theories abound about Condoleeza Rice’s “good girl flip” and the other extreme of the stereotype of the “angry Afro” — with Mrs Obama’s do reportedly the “golden mean.”
Whether any of this does actually matter is beside the point. Will I be returning to my slovenly roll-out-of-bed, slap-it-on top of my head hairstyle?
You betcha.
Eavan is based in Sydney, Australia.
Article posted
on Saturday, November 8, 2008 at 12:01 am in Culture & Media, Politics
