25 Feminists With Really Great Hair
Photo: Jean-Claude Francolon/Getty Images, New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images, Ralph Crane/Getty Images, New York Times Co./Getty Images
Every political movement has its attendant male hairstyle, from the Roman-inspired dos of Napoleonic France to Maoist bowl cuts to the shellacked pompadours of ‘80s Republicans. A man can tell his barber his political party and come away looking the part. It’s harder for a woman. Women’s hairstyles are usually about signaling one’s position on the Venn diagram of sexy/old/professional, with various subcategories for things like what kind of mom you are and what sort of human you want to be naked with. With all that going on, it’s hard to also make sure that your haircut is feminist.
Well, never fear. Your coiffure is feminist if you are. Perhaps, like Yoko Ono, you have yards of the stuff. Or maybe you’ve taken it back to baby-fuzz like Sinead O’Connor. Or you have just a soupçon, perfectly dolloped atop an angular visage, like Alison Bechdel. All these styles and a zillion more have sprouted from the heads of feminists. And like other things that have sprouted from the heads of feminists — philosophy, legislation, activist strategy, art — they are open to debate. Which styles qualify as the greatest feminist hairstyles of all time? Click through our slideshow to see.
Gloria Steinem Here we see Gloria Steinem in a formal pose, looking just like any other lovely young lady of the early 1960s. Nowadays this look ...
Gloria Steinem Here we see Gloria Steinem in a formal pose, looking just like any other lovely young lady of the early 1960s. Nowadays this look is basically reserved for Mad Men costume parties and the strange nostalgia for the sexist generation of our grandparents that those parties encourage. And yet, in the swordlike shine of Steinem’s ironed tresses, we can see the reflection of the Playboy Bunny turned founding mother of mainstream feminist journalism. And perhaps — but we can only hope — we can also see the end of Mad Men costume parties.
Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Pompeii Sappho Here we see the fifth-century-BCE Greek poet wearing a fetching golden cage over her curls, almost as if her genius were a bird sh...
Pompeii Sappho Here we see the fifth-century-BCE Greek poet wearing a fetching golden cage over her curls, almost as if her genius were a bird she wanted to keep safely contained in her head. But this is not a lifelike portrait, and we have no idea what style she actually favored. What we can know is what she liked to see on other women, particularly one long-fingered lass named (cough) Dika:
But you, O Dika, wreathe lovely garlands in your hair,
Weave shoots of dill together, with slender hands,
For the Graces prefer those who are wearing flowers,
And turn away from those who go uncrowned.
Are you a feminist who wants to please Sappho herself, not to mention the goddesses of creativity? Make sure you serve yourself up with a nice herbal garnish. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Kathy Acker On the head of one stripper turned punk, sex activist, and experimental poet and novelist, we have a riot of pretty much ev...
Kathy Acker On the head of one stripper turned punk, sex activist, and experimental poet and novelist, we have a riot of pretty much everything awesome you can do with very, very short hair. We have the faux-hawk, though it wouldn’t have been called that in the early 1990s. We have the dyeing of the ends but not the roots. We have cryptic signs carved into the stubble, creating variation in depth and texture. If Acker is our best example of how far you can take small feminist hair, is it significant that she was at Brandeis with Angela Davis, who is our best example of how far you can take big feminist hair? Did they conspire, as fresh-faced undergraduates, to push the hair of their generation to its outer limits? We may never know ... but we can dream.
Photo: Steve Pyke/Getty Images
Tavi Gevinson
Tavi Gevinson’s trademark bangs seem to be appearing more and more, shading youthful feminist foreheads. Perhaps this blogger’s u...
Tavi Gevinson
Tavi Gevinson’s trademark bangs seem to be appearing more and more, shading youthful feminist foreheads. Perhaps this blogger’s uncompromising fringe signifies an angry innocence that refuses to be robbed of its future?
Photo: Tavi Gevinson
Susan Sontag
If you have a searing white streak in your hair you are obviously a feminist, and it doesn’t really matter how you cut your hair s...
Susan Sontag
If you have a searing white streak in your hair you are obviously a feminist, and it doesn’t really matter how you cut your hair so long as you don’t dye it. Photo: Edward Hausner/New York Times Co./Getty Images
Le Tigre Piece-y bangs and long hair do not a feminist band make. JD Samson shows us that a mustache on a woman is a fine and precious thing...
Le Tigre Piece-y bangs and long hair do not a feminist band make. JD Samson shows us that a mustache on a woman is a fine and precious thing. Not nearly enough of us fly the furry flag that the angels gave us. Fire your electrologist and fuzz out, my sisters. (And yes, I am speed-dialing my electrologist right now, because I am not a feminist, I am a chicken.)
Photo: Emily Shur/CORBIS OUTLINE
Erica Jong It is impossible to imagine that anyone other than Erica Jong would ever have Erica Jong’s hair. That stuff is clearly not at all afra...
Erica Jong It is impossible to imagine that anyone other than Erica Jong would ever have Erica Jong’s hair. That stuff is clearly not at all afraid of flying. Like a sunkissed thunderhead, it looks as if it could float off to Vienna and have a torrid affair and a sexual awakening all on its own.
Photo: Hy Simon/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
Yoko Ono
The important thing about Yoko Ono’s hair is the center part. What does it mean, this parting of the waters? Is it the relentless pale...
Yoko Ono
The important thing about Yoko Ono’s hair is the center part. What does it mean, this parting of the waters? Is it the relentless pale road of sorrow? Is it the glorious pathway to artistic dedication? It doesn’t matter. Straight down the middle of the head, that part draws your eye right to Ono’s face, and once there you can’t look away. Photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images
Simone de Beauvoir The author of The Second Sex believed that one is not born a woman, but “becomes” one by accepting the script of womanhood. Ho...
Simone de Beauvoir The author of The Second Sex believed that one is not born a woman, but “becomes” one by accepting the script of womanhood. How can we become something else? By rejecting our entrapment in the category of woman and actively choosing freedom. That’s great, and obviously we should all do it right now. But remember that Harry Potter novel where Voldemort was growing on the back of someone’s head, all wrapped up under a turban? Now look at de Beauvoir’s Cinnabon-size topknot. Surely she’s becoming a more free version of herself under there, and when that new self is cooked, she’ll just pin the bun up over her old face.
Photo: Charles Hewitt/Picture Post/Getty Images
Mary Wollstonecraft Consider Mary Wollstonecraft’s powdered gray mane, bound round the middle with a baffling white cloth. Why were white hair an...
Mary Wollstonecraft Consider Mary Wollstonecraft’s powdered gray mane, bound round the middle with a baffling white cloth. Why were white hair and white wigs in fashion in the 18th century? There are many answers to that question, most of them having to do with disgusting things like smallpox-induced alopecia. But here, on Mary the Mother of us all, the gray clearly signifies both the suffering of genius repressed and the wisdom of a great mind that has claimed its freedom. But that weird cloth? Perhaps it is meant to invoke a bandage, symbolizing the wounds incurred in the struggle? Or maybe this is simple, casual Mary W., working at home on an evening. “This old thing? It’s William’s stocking. Instead of darning it, I’m using it to keep my hair out of my eyes while I change the lives of women forever.”
Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Photo (c) Tate
Angela Davis When Angela Davis appeared on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List in 1970, she was sporting an Afro so perfect that to this ver...
Angela Davis When Angela Davis appeared on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List in 1970, she was sporting an Afro so perfect that to this very day it remains the textbook example of the style. And with that mugshot, she changed the history of hair. The previously New York– and Chicago-based style became an international symbol of black pride and a means of taking back and taking up space. But fabulous though her Afro may have been, Davis has been known to express a certain wariness about it. Her name, which should call to mind a life of radical thought and action, is remembered by many in reference to a hairstyle alone.
Photo: Corbis/�� Corbis. All Rights Reserved.
Nefertiti Nefertiti revolutionized Egyptian art in the 13th century BCE. Under her supervision, husbands and wives were shown as equal in size, a...
Nefertiti Nefertiti revolutionized Egyptian art in the 13th century BCE. Under her supervision, husbands and wives were shown as equal in size, as opposed to wives represented as about the size of whippets, scampering around their husbands’ ankles. This portrait bust of the queen is considered an accurate image. Is that a hat, or is it hair? Hats are essential feminist accessories, and this enormous one would look great on any feminist from Boadicea to Gloria Steinem. But if we decide that this is a hairstyle, and if we zoom forward 34 centuries to the 1980s, we are reminded of the real feminist possibilities inherent in a good, sharply hewn flat top, à la Grace Jones. A flat top makes you taller, and it makes you sharper: You cannot possibly simper or demur if this is your haircut.
Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images/2014 Getty Images
Joan Baez Joan Baez’s hair: Black and long, it flows down past her earnest, extraordinary face, past her guitar, past her toes, past you and me, ...
Joan Baez Joan Baez’s hair: Black and long, it flows down past her earnest, extraordinary face, past her guitar, past her toes, past you and me, past everything. Joan Baez’s hair is eternal, flowing like the tears she is never allowed to stop shedding for Bob Dylan. Doesn’t matter that she cut it off and now has a spiky white do and a bright smile. Her hair flows on and on, reminding us that all the talent in the world and a voice as big and luscious as a state-fair butter sculpture won’t change the fact that some weedy little dude is going to steal all your limelight — in fact, he’s going to steal all the limelight ever produced in the history of limelight. This hairdo is definitely the way to go if you want to express quiet but devastating grief over the depth and width of sexism.
Photo: Ralph Crane//Getty Images/Time Life Pictures
Ellen DeGeneres Part tomboy little sister of your high-school best friend, part mussed-up choirboy, part Joffrey Baratheon.
Photo: Adam Taylor/...
Ellen DeGeneres Part tomboy little sister of your high-school best friend, part mussed-up choirboy, part Joffrey Baratheon.
Photo: Adam Taylor/Getty Images/2014 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
Alice Walker All we need to know about Alice Walker’s hair she told us herself. In 1987 she gave a talk at Spelman College entitled “Oppressed Ha...
Alice Walker All we need to know about Alice Walker’s hair she told us herself. In 1987 she gave a talk at Spelman College entitled “Oppressed Hair Puts a Ceiling on the Brain.” Walker spent years of her life anxious about her hair and further years having her hair combed and braided. Add to that the years other women spent growing the hair Walker had braided into her own, and suddenly the burden of time and worry was too much. Everything changed when she stopped stressing about her hair altogether and simply let it grow as it would: “The ceiling at the top of my brain lifted; once again my mind (and spirit) could get outside myself. I would not be stuck in restless stillness, but would continue to grow. The plant was above the ground!”
Photo: Harcourt Brace/Getty Images
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Tina Fey and Amy Poehler need to have shoulder-length, ever so slightly wavy hair because sometimes they have to make fu...
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Tina Fey and Amy Poehler need to have shoulder-length, ever so slightly wavy hair because sometimes they have to make fun of politicians and newscasters, and at other times they have to be movers and shakers in a man’s world, and at other times they have to be cool moms. Side by side, Fey and Poehler prove that this versatile hairstyle can work for white feminists of all hair colors.
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
Germaine Greer “The world has lost its soul, and I my sex,” Greer mourned in 1970. The Female Eunuch argues that suburban housewifedom and consum...
Germaine Greer “The world has lost its soul, and I my sex,” Greer mourned in 1970. The Female Eunuch argues that suburban housewifedom and consumer culture has robbed women of their sexual — and therefore their essential — vitality, and has trained women to hate themselves when they should be fighting the fact that they are hated by men. Women should stop chasing after monogamy, they should explore their own pleasures, they should taste their own menstrual blood. Greer’s clarion call: sex. Greer’s haircut: the shag.
Photo: Terrence Spencer//Getty Images/Time Life Pictures
Eve Ensler F. Scott Fitzgerald was not a feminist, but in a little story written in 1920 and entitled “Bernice Bobs Her Hair," he teaches us...
Eve Ensler F. Scott Fitzgerald was not a feminist, but in a little story written in 1920 and entitled “Bernice Bobs Her Hair," he teaches us that bobs are feminist hairstyles. Jealous Marjorie tricks cousin Bernice into bobbing her hair. All the boys lose interest in the new, crop-haired Bernice. In revenge, Bernice sneaks into Marjorie’s bedroom late at night and cuts off her braids. Any good resistant feminist reader would immediately understand that bobbing one’s hair frees you from the prurient interests of icky boys. Not only that, but bobbing one’s hair is a nice way to get close to feisty girls. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the author of The Vagina Monologues, a play in which a gaggle of female genitalia tell their stories, is a famous bob-sporter.
Photo: Stephen Danelian/CORBIS OUTLINE
Radclyffe Hall Who was “John” Radclyffe Hall’s hairdresser? Because even today it is damn hard to get anyone to give you an honest-to-god man’s h...
Radclyffe Hall Who was “John” Radclyffe Hall’s hairdresser? Because even today it is damn hard to get anyone to give you an honest-to-god man’s haircut, and John managed to get one back in the early 20th century. Hall did roll out the occasional ever so slightly girlish spit-curl when the patriarchy must be appeased, but tucked it neatly away behind an ear when the unpleasant necessities were done with.
Photo: Culture Club/Getty Images/2013 Culture Club
Susan Faludi The long and flowing hair of the 1980s feminist was different from the long and flowing hair of her 1960s predecessors. And that dif...
Susan Faludi The long and flowing hair of the 1980s feminist was different from the long and flowing hair of her 1960s predecessors. And that difference can be seen here on Susan Faludi, serious Harvard undergraduate headed straight toward becoming a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author. Those are not the perfectly trimmed ends of a vulnerable dreamer. Nope. Faludi is going to work, working for the working woman, and her hair is going to work with her.
Photo: Terence Donovan Archive/Getty Images
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
As a teenager, Ayaan Hirsi Ali wore the hijab. Now she critiques it, saying that it “blinkers both your vision and your destiny...
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
As a teenager, Ayaan Hirsi Ali wore the hijab. Now she critiques it, saying that it “blinkers both your vision and your destiny.” The Somali-born onetime Dutch Parliamentarian and atheist author of the memoir Infidel wears her hair drawn back into a chignon. This is a hairstyle that is about the chosen visibility of something that was once hidden, but it is also unmarked by era. Of course, Ali’s hairstyle — simply because it is on view — is all about her feminism and her activism, but timelessness is a good choice if minimizing your hair is essential to maximizing your message. Photo: Gerard Cerles/AFP/Getty Images
Malala Yousafzai The first thing Malala Yousafzai asked for when she woke up after being shot was a mirror. She wanted to see her hair: &qu...
Malala Yousafzai The first thing Malala Yousafzai asked for when she woke up after being shot was a mirror. She wanted to see her hair: "When I saw myself, I was distraught. My long hair, which I used to spend ages styling, had gone, and the left side of my head had none at all. 'Now my hair is small,' I wrote in the book. I thought the Taliban had cut it off. In fact the Pakistani doctors had shaved my head with no mercy. 'Who did this to me?' I wrote, my letters still scrambled. 'What happened to me?'" The young Nobel Peace Prize–winning feminist's hair is big and beautiful again, and the question “What happened to me?” has expanded from her hair to encompass the whole world.
Photo: �� Corbis. All Rights Reserved.
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