Shootout at the Miss Clairol Corral
Talk about Fresh Hell - there was a infotainment blurb on the Today Show Friday morning about gray being the new black - the loud ping registered on the Fresh Hell ick-o-meter was that youthful looking gray haired men are now considered charming, approachable, and sexy.
Not a single word about gray haired women.
The story did its usual fawning on graying yet youthful male celebrities, notably the latest American Idol Taylor Hicks, George Clooney, Cooper Anderson, Jon Stewart, Mark Harmon, Richard Gere, etc.
Yet not a single graying yet youthful female celebrity was profiled. Do you know why? Becuse they don't exist. Every single female celebrity who has turned gray at a young age or turns gray naturally as she ages colors her hair to hide it. And no one thinks this is stupid or odd or wrong or even newsworthy.
Yet when male celebrities choose to either stop coloring their hair (if they turned gray at a young age) or to never color at all it's treated like a maverick stance - as daring as a Shootout at the Miss Clairol Corral or something.
A quick Google search unearths a few recent articles on the "gray hair is sexy meme" that discuss promiment women who have gone completely gray; they mention Susan Sontag (who died in December 2004), and 59 year old Emmylou Harris (who does look nearly otherworldly beautiful). Not mentioned is the undeniably sexy and gracious Anne Bancroft (who died in June 2005). Mentioned in the abstract is the character Meryl Streep plays in the new movie "The Devil Wears Prada" - although I don't think that counts - it's only a movie role. Meryl doesn't have stark white hair in real life.
But where are the youthful female role models gunning for their maverick stance? Curiously absent.
Let's see - Taylor Hicks is 29; Cooper Anderson is 39, Jon Stewart is 43, George Clooney just turned 45, Mark Harmon is 54, and Richard Gere is 57.
As someone who is justifiably sensitive to soceity's double standard on this issue, as I write here and here I say:
I've just decided - gray is the new black, and it's just as cool for women. Frolic away in this pasture and discuss amongst yourselves.
posted by Miliana at 8:22 PM
7 Comments:
Ah, yes. The double standard is alive and well.
There was only one actress I could think of who is determined to age naturally, including gray, and that is Jamie Leigh Curtis, but then she takes predominantly comedian roles or acts the straight 'man' in slasher movies, so maybe she wouldn't count as a female icon to reality.
As to gray males - Taylor Hicks?? Yuck and Good Grief! He goes a long way to proving that taste in America is only in people's mouths. Oh well, I don't want to get started down THAT road.
Granted, I've always been at odds with the fashionable majority, but while I've never minded gray hair on either sex, I rather find bald male pates just as intriging and sexy - Woody Strode, Yul Bruner, and the guy who played the FBI boss on "The X Files" although I don't recall his name. As long as the gray or bald head is attached to a fit masculine bod, the whole package has a certain appeal.
With women, however, their love of Miss Clairol is due to their own perceptions of how the world, men and their own eyes perceive them. Until all females find the courage and 'go to hell' attitude to be confident about more than their looks, attitudes won't change. Let's face it, it's the fears of older adults who have allowed this to become a young person's world...which might be why old, homely looking men like Bush and Cheney start wars. It shrinks the pool of younger men as competition.
Kaz- Your point about Jamie Leigh Curtis is a good one - I do think she is committed to aging naturally, but her film roles as of late haven't been serious.
The only reason I included Taylor Hicks in that list is because he is a young man graying naturally. I haven't followed any of the American Idol shows even from the beginning, so all I know of him is what he looks like.
I'm definitely with you on the attractive bald man (Yul Brynner! Yowr!).
But women, who generally still cannot see themselves clearly outside of the the admiring male gaze, will, as you rightly state, never change their attitudes.
Le Sigh.
Ilonas -
You gave me a wonderful chuckle this morning. I'm like you - I love grey hair on women, and am so envious of those whose hair is cut youthfully shot, and is white. I also love my cousin Pam's hair. A tall red head in her late 30's, she's gone such a beautiful shade of grey (very soft strawberry blonde) that, not realizing, I asked her what dye color she'd used so I could copy it!!
Having quit coloring about seven years ago, my grey is showing, not as salt and pepper, but in patches and wide streaks. I'm beginning to look like a quilt, which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'bed head.'
Both Ilonas & Kaz make good points about normal average everyday women calling a halt to the coloring war. And it's very nice to know women out there refusing to kow tow to the rules about aging.
But I'd still like to see someone who is firmly entrenched in the public eye (like Nicole Kidman or Catherine Zeta Jones) pull some courage out of somewhere and go gray naturally.
Great points, Ilonas. Very few celebrity people in the public eye are living in an everyday reality, and speaking only of acting - their entire career is built on pretense. That's the name of the business.
All of you guys have some terrific points of view - and I agree with all of them. I can see how celebrities are managed to within an inch of their lives according to their looks - at the end of the day the bottom line is money, and if the bottom line is all about your face and/or body, then you'll do whatever it takes.
But (idealistic self half sobs) - Money! Again! Foiled. The answer to practically everything.
thanks for all the comments - it means TONS to me that you all take the time to write.
I'm only 18 but I'm beginning to gray. I've decided that I love the look of stark white or silver hair and I'm going to let my hair gray naturally. I think it looks sophisticated and makes the owner of the hair look more intelligent. Thank you for this blog and the support you've given me!
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