Back in June, we heard the story of a young Latina soccer player who was accused of actually being a boy, with her team kicked out of a tournament. Proof of gender, such as her parents producing her medical insurance card showing that she was female, was rejected. Reason the organizers thought she was a he? Hair length — she cut her hair short so it would’t interfere with her game play.
Well, the hair debate has come up again, this time in Wisconsin. And I think it takes a more sinister turn.
It’s a front page story on USA Today:
Couldn’t find the USA Today article online but found reports from Wisconsin media.
From the NBC affiliate, KARE 11:
When Mira Wilde was 8 years old, she wanted to cut her hair like one of her idols, Ellen DeGeneres. So she did.
Fast forward two years, Mira, now 10, still has short hair — though now she's mimicking a new idol, Abby Wambach, the 2015 World Cup soccer champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist.
About a year and a half ago, Stella Blau cut her hair short, too. Stella, now 11, also wanted to look like Wambach, as well as another idol, U.S. women's national team midfielder Megan Rapinoe.
Another girl, Adah Lacocque, got her hair cut at 4 so she wouldn’t get yogurt in it.
For female athletes, short hair makes a lot of sense. It’s easier to take care of — quick wash and a towel dry and you’re pretty much good to go after a tough practice or game. No worries about hair getting damaged by hair bands or excessive blow drying. No ponytails that can get pulled (accidentally or intentionally) in the heat of play.
I wasn’t an athlete (I preferred staying inside with a good book to running around outside, plus I was a natural klutz) but I had short hair in school. Easy to take care of, no tangles, and my mother said that “fat girls shouldn’t have long hair”. My short hair was more of a traditional “feminine” style (“pixie” style in elementary school, and later I adopted a modified Hamill haircut, named for Olympic figure skater Dorothy Hamill). It wasn’t till I grew up, got my own hair stylist (well, technically I “married into” her business, since she had done the hair of everyone in Mr. Scribe’s family for years) that I experimented with growing my hair out and found that it softened the curves in my round face, making my head look less like a Tootsie Pop on top of a boulder.
Yet these young women are the subject of ridicule and abuse by opposing parents, coaches and even referees — forced to prove that they’re not boys.
At tournaments, they have been asked to prove their gender, and were told they didn't deserve medals.
But instead of giving in and growing their hair out, the girls, with the help of their parents, coach and soccer club, are sticking with each other — and with their look. After a summer hiatus, they're preparing for a new season beginning in September.
Once, the team went up to receive medals at a tournament, but didn't get the congratulations that they thought they deserved. A referee told the girls they didn't deserve to get medals because they played with boys on the team.
The message this sends to young women is troubling — you’re only a true “woman” if you have the “proper” hair.
But I think it’s more than that — check out the names of these girls’ idols.
Ellen DeGeneres
Abby Wambach
Megan Rapinoe
All women with short hair. Two of them soccer stars,
And all three of them out lesbians.
Is there a bit of homophobia (and transphobia) in these arguments about the “proper” hairstyle for female athletes?
There’s always been pressure on “proper” hair — in this scene from the movie musical “Hair” the psychiatrist even asks a character if his aversion to having his hair cut is due to his sexual orientation, which leads into the anthem of the musical:
But as India.Arie reminds us, what’s on our head has nothing to do with what’s inside.
No telling what the future holds for the young soccer women — maybe they’ll lose interest in the sport, grow their hair out and find other interests. Maybe they go on to soccer stardom in high school, college or beyond. But the parents and coaches who make fun of them need to realize that it’s not the hair that makes the woman (or man).