Debriefing Baldiness: I did it 'cause I'm a woman!

[caption id="attachment_43" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="In an in-between stage when Sarah's dad's beard trimmer ran out of juice."][/caption]

Hello beautiful people!

Just going to post a short debrief because I didn't get to go too much into it last time.  The way it happened:

I was riding a bus to Philadelphia, and I just couldn't stop thinking about much I wanted to shave it.  Even though I kept thinking of the reasons why I shouldn't shave my head, I couldn't stop wondering what it'd be like.  And that's how I knew I was ready to shave my head, riding a stinky bus to Philadelphia around 10PM and feeling nauseous.

I think the biggest realization I made on that bus ride was: The only reason why I'm not shaving my head is because I'm worried about what people will think of me, which makes my hair a social crutch.  If people are going to judge me by my hair, then they are probably people I wouldn't care to be friends with anyway, and if I'm going to feel insecure without having my curtain of hair covering my face, then all the more reason to take this jump.  And most of all, if people are going to think I'm a lesbian or manly or not womanly enough, then they clearly don't know what a woman is.  My hair does not define my womanhood, my personality, or my identity.

My friend told me about an English teacher she had who also shaved her hair off.  I'm going to try to recreate the advice that her English teacher told her that she relayed to me:  All beautiful women should shave their hair off, or at least do something to make her not rely on her beauty.  Women don't realize how such a small thing like their hair can affect the way people think of you, interact with you, and how normalcy is so safe.

To end this blog post (I know I've been overly repetitive about my baldiness), I'm going to make a confession.  Ever since I've had this haircut, I've never felt so confident or attractive in my life.  It's such a powerful feeling!

Debriefing Korea

chicken & ginseng soup

seoul

For Spring Break, I had the unique privilege of traveling to South Korea on a scholarship program generously funded by the Korea Foundation. I met 75 other students from all over the country (hello to my sisters from Arkansas, Alabama, and upstate New York, and Minnesota)! After 24 hours of traveling, I made it from Boston to Seoul on a Saturday night. For the next 8 days, I had a packed schedule filled with seeing Seoul: eating traditional Korean food, learning Taekwondo, Korean drumming, and Korean traditional dance, listening to lectures at Yonsei University, and navigating the high-tech subway system. I was overwhelmed by the hospitality of the Korean students I met, and the liveliness of Seoul. It rivals New York for sure.

When I applied for this program, I mentioned my fascination with South Korea's dramatic economic development - its rise as as one of the four "Asian Tigers." (Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are the other three) We spent a week or so talking about this last term in Intro to Comparative Politics (Mr. Polazzo's class, college style). The story, the "Miracle of the Han River," is that through leveraging a cheap labor force and Export Oriented Industrialization (and lots of US investment), Korea managed to switch from an agricultural economy to a highly advanced, globalized one in less than 20 years. A devasted, post-war Korea has become the 13th largest economy in the world. Holy crap.

Last week, I saw this in action. Of course Seoul is bustling, and Samsumg and LG logos are everywhere, but I saw this "Tiger" in the place I would least expect: at the Demilitarized Zone. We spent our third day in South Korea at the border between North and South Korea, where a cease-fire has been maintained for 57 years (this year marks the 60th anniversary of the start of the war). We were given briefings by the UN Security Council officers, bused around to see The Bridge of No Return (where POWs were exchanged), and crawled through the Third Tunnel of Aggression (allegedly designed by North Korea to attack Seoul). Through all of this, I felt the military intensity, and complexity of the situation. But there's more.

As we stared at North Korea from the large window of the museum at the Third Tunnel, I saw a line of cars at a distance move towards North Korea. It was like watching a silent film (I think, although I've never actually seen a silent film)  - the cars made no noise, they looked more like toy cars than anything. Who were they?

None other than South Korean business people headed for the Kaesong Industrial Complex. Set up in 2002 and expected to be completed by 2012, this complex employs around 40,000 North Koreans for an average of $57/month - half the cost of comparable Chinese labor, and 5% of what it would cost in South Korea (Newsweek 2006). One hour away from Seoul, in communist North Korea, lies an intensely capitalist hub.

I could not believe irony of the conflict. Here I was, pretty thoroughly briefed about the nuclear threat of North Korea, and reminded that "the war is not over," as cars waltzed right through the border on their personal runway to capitalize on cheap labor. Can we call this the military-industrial complex? To some extent, South Korea is repeating a familiar process: staying competitive with cheap labor. But this is North Korea we're talking about, and while many Koreans I met (and many people I know in general) condemn the North Korean government, South Korea is committed to setting up factories across the border.

I am torn. To what extent should politics and economics overlap? Is it an issue that some of the South Korean students I met say that they, like many people, just "don't care" for North Korea? "In high school, we learned that North Korea was our friend, but in the military, I learned how to kill them. Now I just don't care." I want everyone to have a living wage, and so what does that mean for North Koreans? 60 years after the war, does reunification look more and more unlikely?

Unfortunately, I don't have nearly the expertise or knowledge needed to fully assess the situation. I was in South Korea for 9 days, and I learned so much, but there's so much more. I am honored to have had this experience, and it definitely left me more concerned and aware of international issues. Best Spring Break yet, definitely worth not sleeping this week, and being swamped in the weeks to come.

Shaving My Head follow up

HEY GUYS!

As I promised :). Hopefully I'll be able to write more about it soon. But just something to leave you thinking about: I did it because I'm a woman!

Dan Ping

Shaving My Head

For a few years now, I've been entertaining the idea of shaving my head. I think it all started in my junior year (?) of high school when I jokingly suggested it to my mother. My mother responded by telling me that monks would kidnap me, mistaking me for one of their kind and then dragging me back to their temple. It sounds so silly, and I can hardly imagine my mother truly believing in that, but ever since, I've felt intrigued by the idea. By that time in high school, I've already begun questioning about gender standards and as they are applied to me. The kind of girl who wore loose-fitting t-shirts and shouted "suck my dick" crudely and frequently, I've always garnered comments like, "You are such a man," or "Why aren't you more like a girl?" I usually sport long, long almost waist-length hair and have grown quite comfortable with it, so the idea of shaving my head just squirmed away from me.

Now that I'm college, the idea of shaving my head keeps resurfacing. My friend shaved her head, and I've had conversations with several of my friends that makes me consider it more and more. There are many reasons why girls might want to shave their head: just for the heck of it, their friends are doing it and they think it's cool, it's a politically conscious choice to defy gender norms, or they're doing it because it's suitable to their style and personality. I guess my reasons encompass a little bit of all of those, but more for the sake of wanting to do it for the experience.

I keep saying that I want to shave my head, but a little part of me says that I probably never will. Now, I probably sound like a person who talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk, which I guess is true in this context. But despite my vacillating desires, I keep feeling like the con's would outweigh the pro's. Somethings that I always worry about if I shave my head are that people would think I'm a lesbian by stereotype, and that everyone would see/treat me differently. Even though the whole point of shaving my head would be to liberate myself from gender stereotypes (not to mention the added plus of shaving off time from my showers), I can't help but think about my mother being angry at me when she sees that I've shaved my head. My mother, who's perpetually concerned with the life of my future marriage, is always urging me to be more lady-like and more man-attracting. So, I'm just thinking that if I shaved my head every time my mother looks at me, she would be a little repulsed and a little disappointed. I'm just thinking that every time I go outside on my campus, people who associate lesbian women with shaved heads will think they already know who I am and what I'm like, and that frustrates me. But at the root of all my hesitation, doubts, and fears is just a personal self-reinforcement of gender stereotypes and gender roles within myself that I always claim I deny. I know I should just do it if I want to, or not just say it at all, but these are just some of the thoughts that I've had recently. If I do decide to shave my head, I'll let y'all know for sure!

Feminist Coming Out Day

"I am a feminist because I am inspired by the fierce women in my life and believe all women and girls should have the opportunity to reach their full fierceness."

In honor of International Women's Day, and to kick off Women's Week at Harvard, today was 'Feminist Coming Out Day.' I joined students all around campus in proudly wearing a "This is what a FEMINIST looks like" t-shirt that I got lost in Adams trying to find. The effort was subtle, but I'm sure people noticed. Hey, the guy who swipes my ID card for breakfast noticed. And I was complimented by a stranger in Boston.

Before coming to college, I never embraced the term feminist. I saw it as an antagonizing, and limiting term. But somehow through this crazy healthcare reform mess, I've met more proud, ambitious, and inclusive feminists than I can count. As I 'come out' as a feminist, I think about the strong woman who got on the bus for 17 hrs to lobby in DC, I think about the fierce sisters I have at NAPAWF, and the amazing girls (and guys) I'm surrounded by. I am honored and privileged to join the wall at the ever hidden Adams Artspace, but let's be clear - the voice and power of women and girls is anything but hidden.