Do you ever wear pigtails? Do you ever steal your daughter’s Hello Kitty bobble-elastics and fasten your unwashed and uncombed hair into sad little quotation marks in an effort to just not look like your head got attacked by a badger? Do you ever do this? Should you ever do this? Some folks say, hell no. I say, just what the hell am I supposed to do with my hair, then?
Reading the article ‘Who Can Wear Pigtails?‘ confused me. The author argues that there is a gravely serious pigtail dilemma, one that affects the very trajectory of postmodern feminism: ‘(w)here do we draw the line between fun and sexual? … Pigtails have a distinctly different effect when worn by a 12-year-old than when worn by someone who is almost 20.’ Sure, her statement might be true. Pigtails on a 20 year old can be seen as both fun and flirty. But, then again, so can pretty much everything that twenty year old wears. Twenty year olds are generally looked to as setting the norm for sexy thanks to our culture’s warped perceptions of beauty (don’t blame me, I’m too lazy to warp anyone’s perceptions. But that said, I firmly believe that like just like Smokey the Bear: only you can prevent warped perceptions.) But: what’s wrong with fun and flirty? And, why is it necessarily infantilizing if I, a 40 year old mom, do it?
Her argument is that pigtails are ‘sexy’ because they evoke girlishness, and that evoking girlishness for the purposes of sexy can be creepy. But how does this apply to, say, a thirty-something or forty-something woman? A mom who just wants to keep her not-long-enough-for-a-proper-ponytail hair out of her face? Or a mom whose hair is long enough for the more dignified (?) look of a ponytail but, hell, there were two Hello Kitty bobbles and why not use both? Honestly, I just thought that wearing pigtails was just wearing pigtails, rather than a statement of… well just what exactly does a grown woman wearing pigtails mean? Why is it okay(ish) for a twenty-something to do it, and not me? Why does it become more infantilizing – and, presumably, more anti-feminist – the older a woman gets? WHY ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT THIS?
I’ve been wearing pigtails pretty much my entire forty years (save for that ultra short Demi Moore phase sometime back in the 90s which was awesome to wear but a bitch to maintain.) It’s an easy hairstyle, it keeps the hair off my neck in the summer, and frankly I think it looks sporty rather than sexy. But am I fooling myself? I don’t think so; I think I’m just trying to keep heat rash off my neck and look neat these days. NOT EASY, PEOPLE.
(Erm, no pun intended.)
But maybe I’m fooling myself and shouldn’t be wearing my beloved pigtails? Seventeen Magazine seems to think so:
So. Am I infantilizing myself with my pigtails? Are you? Are we? Holy crow, who knew my hair had so much to say besides ‘how about some damn conditioning once in a while, lazybones’ ? Pigtails on this 40 year old are just comfortable, dammit — not a statement of yearning for years gone by. Geez people, you’re making me paranoid.
About katie
If the pigtails are worn high on the crown of the head, that’s a big no-no. Way too babyish. If they are loose at the nape of the neck or if they are braids, I think they’re fine as long as the outfit that is attached is casual. Then it looks like you didn’t put much thought into the look, you’re not trying too hard to look cute, you just naturally ARE. Keri Russell and Zooey pull this look off, IMO. The best look past age… oh… eight, is jeans and a t-shirt.
I think if you’re over 50, or if you’re 40 but look 50, you might not pull the look off. You might. But probably not.
i agree with the commenter above (natasha) – i wear mine in double braids all the time to keep my uber thick hair off my neck.
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i wear pigtails often, for exactly the awkward-hair-length in the super-hot-summer reason you mentioned.
i think it’s perfectly fine – rock the tails!
abby
Okay now Tori Spelling just looks BAD in pigtails! LOL! I always (okay, not ALWAYS, but sometimes) wear my hair in pigtails or braids, in the summer. It’s cute, and yes, it’s sexy, and what the hell is wrong with that? Um, NOTHING! I think it’s cute. And I don’t care what other people think!
Ugh why is this even an issue?! Sometimes functionality trumps fashion. If you want to wear pigtails, no matter your age, then do it. You’re not killing feminism or trying to be “cute” or anything else. You’re just doing what works for you. Honestly, why do people get worked up over this stuff?!
You know what the beauty of feminism is? I get to decide what it means to me and how I want to live. It is the freedom to wear our hair however we want. I wear my hair the way I want to wear it and how it’s comfortable to me. Who does anyone think they are to tell me that my hair is too anything? It’s hair! It’s not a direct line to my soul or essence. It can change in an instant. I’m really significantly more concerned with equal pay for equal work and issues that actually matter.
Meh.
Fuck standards & expectations. I’m so sick of hearing someone telling me that my version of parenting or my identity is not the norm. It’s like those people who see a tattooed, pierced dude playing with a toddler and assume he’s a drug addict dad who can’t hold down a job. Really?
Feminism has taken an ugly turn recently. I think it’s b/c it’s becoming obsolete. So uber feminists are out looking for things to bitch about and are turning on their own. I hear less critisism about my identity from men than I do from women. There’s something wrong with that.
And today, in your honor I gonna wear some fucking pigtails with Hello Kitty bows. (My 2 yr old has em too).
Cheers.
Viva la Pigtails! I look bald and sad when I try to wear a single ponytail. Pigtails look much better on me and isn’t that what really matters. I have come to grips with the fact that my boobs are way to big to pull off overalls, I refuse to give up my pigtails. The scorn of Seventeen Magazine will do nothing to diminish my enthusiasm for two hunks of hair on either side of my head.
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I’m 29 and I wear pigtails at least three times a week, because they look cute with my favorite hat and I usually can’t be bothered to take the time it would require to actually do my hair most days. Pigtails are an easy way for me to look cute without a lot of effort, and I find I don’t like wearing a single ponytail because I have a round face, and I feel like it looks rounder with my hair pulled back.
Anyway…I think I’m kinda tired of women telling each other what they are too old or too young to wear. Once we hit adulthood, one of the perks is supposed to be that we get to do what we want. And, as a commenter on the post that sparked this debate said, there are porny pigtails, and then there are “I just want to feel sporty and casual today” pigtails.
Oh lordy, how stupid–not you–the fact that there is a “pigtail dilemma”. Are people just really, really bored nowadays? Have we debated all we can debate and have now started to create inane topics to make controversial? Oy. I swish my pigtails in that author’s general direction.
I think in adult women, pigtails (when wore low of course, when high is more reminiscent of pippy longstocking) looks fun and comfortable.
On behalf of feminism, you know, ’cause I feel I can speak for all women, I think you’re fine.
Man, I am out of the loop because I was like, “Wow! Seventeen still exists? Why is that?” Seriously, I think we should be more concerned about magazines like Seventeen and how THEY affect feminism rather than the braids and pigtails I wear to give my long hair a chance to heal from being pulled into harsh ponytails. Also? They make my face less drastic. AND? Anyone who thinks that looking like a little girl is sexual is the person with the issue; not the hairdo.
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