Duxford Girl

Look, I know that in a recent interview with the latest shuttle crew the reporter didn’t ask Barbara Morgan about her hair because he consciously wanted to bring her down as a woman. The simpler, and far scarier, fact is that asking a woman about her hair is such a natural thing to do. Women are meant to care about their appearance and therefore, the question is acceptable. It’s not acceptable, though. And before anybody gives me the typical pat on the head when a woman objects to this sort of thing (“obviously you’re just jealous because she has nicer hair than you”) let me set this one thing straight. I’m not jealous that Barbara Morgan has long, nice hair…I’M JEALOUS THAT SHE’S A FREAKIN’ ASTRONAUT AND I’M NOT!

What is really irritating about the question to Barbara Morgan is that she is a school teacher, the back-up, in fact for Christa McAuliffe lost in the ill-fated Challenger mission of 1986. Barbara Morgan was slated to broadcast several hours of school to thousands of school children. Naturally, there had to be a cutesy question about her hair because I’m sure corporate North America wouldn’t want all those little girls to grow up and think that they don’t have to look like models (you’ll never be perfect, keep buying products to try) even if they’re astronauts.

I’m not over-reacting. In fact, why aren’t we all reacting to the garbage put forth in the mass media to keep women from gaining any true power? We’re letting our little sisters down because we’re dooming them to a life of ogling brain-dead vacuous trust-fund babies like Paris Hilton. A teacher who just trained as an astronaut? That’s a great role model. Why on earth downplay her accomplishments by worrying about the state of her hair in zero gravity.

So go ahead, tell me I’m paranoid. Tell me that I’m just jealous. Tell me that if I keep having these ‘radical’ opinions my husband will start stepping out for someone more feminine. Tell me that people don’t like women with strong opinions and that it just turns people off. Tell me whatever you want to tell me to discourage the truth but if women would have kept listening to the above statements they never would have:

Demanded and achieved the right to vote
Become doctors, lawyers, military officers, pilots, astronauts and any other profession that was so long dominated by men
Fought for equal wages for equal work and earned a myriad of rights in the workplace (this one still needs a lot of fighting)

There’s a lot more that woman can demand and achieve and it starts with asking ourselves if a simple question about hair isn’t a tad patronizing, unnecessary and stupid.