It should come as no surprise that we here at SheWired are serious fans of short haircuts on women. You could argue that they help add visibility to queer women — and while I know that's a stereotype, as a femme who's all too familiar with the reality of Femme Invisibility and often gets presumed straight, I can say that there is some validity in how the outside world views you differently with short hair. I'm not saying that's right — I think you should be allowed to present your gender in whatever ways make you feel beautiful and empowered — but women with short hair are almost unanimously subject to public scrutiny about their sexuality, often based solely of the length of their locks.
Which is all fine and dandy if you're a fierce (straight) rock star like Pink, but apparently mainstream audiences are a bit less accepting of women who want to rock a perfect pixie or a bodacious bob. Harsh critique of Miley Cyrus' feisty pixie cut comes to mind here.
That hasn't stopped several starlets from shearing off their locks lately, despite vocal condemnation from (presumably straight male) audiences who relentlessly contend, "She was hotter with long hair."
That's exactly what happened when Victoria's Secret model Karlie Kloss dared to trim her hair above shoulder-height before walking the runway at last fall's fashion show. Initially, the company insisted that Kloss wear $75,000 worth of hair extensions for the show, reports CNN. (Proving my point, CNN has filed multiple reports on the length of Kloss' hair and how the public has reacted to it.) Kloss even had to proclaim to People magazine, "You can be sexy with short hair!" Because, obviously, common sense dictates that only skinny, tan, cisgender women with hair to their ass and their cleavage pushed to their chin can actually be sexy.
Anyway, we thought we'd give the gender police the proverbial middle finger and round up some images of sexy ladies who have recently shown us that short can definitely equal sexy.
We'll start off with Kloss herself, so readers can see just how "drastic" Kloss' cut is.
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Despite critics who said Miley Cyrus' made a "bold" move in shearing off her "trademark" long brown wavy locks, the 20-year-old pop star says she's all about her fiesty faux-hawk, and is never going back. "You'll never see me with long hair again!" Cyrus told the Huffington Post. "I hated the extensions hair — that's sewn into your head. That's creepy! ... It's so weird seeing [pictures of] me and my long hair. I do not like it. I wish someone would have ripped them out of my head because the extension thing is just so not cute! I hate it."
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In case we weren't already falling over ourselves for Charlize Theron, she goes and lops off all her hair for a Mad Max reboot? Be still, by queerly beating heart. Swoon.
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British pop darling Jessie J shaved her head on live television for Comic Relief, she looks unreasonably HOT for charity, and there’s video. End of story.
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Apparently people are always eager to hate on Anne Hathaway, as a recent New York magazine article claimed to answer "Why Do Women Hate Anne Hathaway?" Folks weren't any kinder when Hathaway chopped off her long brunette locks for a disheveled bob to play Fantine in last year's reboot of Les Miserables, but somehow I imagine winning an Oscar for that role might have softened the blow to Hathaway's ego. And for the record, I think she's fantastic. And totally earned that Oscar.
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Even when one of our own deigns to don shorter locks, members of the LGBT community can be downright nasty. When we posted photos of Portia de Rossi from a recent cover shoot from our sibling publication, OUT magazine, commenters immediately siezed on her freshly-shorn 'do. "OMG! What happened to her hair?!" Asked one panicked reader. One male commenter definitively claimed "She looks better with longer hair." Of course, some readers loved De Rossi's look, comparing her to a "young Sharon Stone," and affirming "she's hot either way!"
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Once Upon A Time star Ginnifer Goodwin recently told Yahoo! News that she'll never go back to having long hair. "I don't ever need to, said the 34-year-old actor, "I can wear wigs on-screen." Goodwin also tweeted a photo for a "Throwback Thursday" in January that sheds a little more light on why Goodwin won't be letting her hair grow out anytime soon. Check out Goodwin's au nauturale "fro:"
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Michelle Williams lopped off her locks and went pixie a few years ago, but earlier this month, she debuted an adorable, retro, asymmetrical coif. Of course, rumor has it Williams is ready to grow out the cut, which she says she's kept as a tribute to her late ex-boyfriend (and father to her 7-year-old daughter), Heath Ledger. Regardless, Williams said it plain when she toldYahoo! "The only people who like it are gay men and my girlfriends. Straight men across the board are not into this hair!"
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Bisexual married actor Evan Rachel Wood was one of the first to arrive to the short hair celebration in Hollywood, and even offered fellow close-coiffed ladies tips for styling short hair. And at least she's in on the joke about hair length determining sexuality, snarking on Twitter about how Miley Cyrus' new 'do proved she was "leaning toward gay." The actress recieved a fair amount of backlash, and posted several tweets apologizing and clarifying that she doesn't actually think hair length determines sexuality. And now Cyrus and Wood are besties, so... No harm, no foul, right?
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Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss might be taking a cue from the mid-century fashion leanings of her character, Peggy, who until last year, maintained the status quo with long brunette tresses. But taking a page from Cyrus — or maybe we're giving the pop starlet too much credit here — Moss dyed her new short cut a platinum blonde before returing to Peggy's more familiar dark locks.
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