Woman's Hair

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I should like to answer the letter of H. A. Crosby Forbes to the CRIMSON of February 25, so that he may not misrepresent the opinions of the entire male sex on the subject of Woman's Hair.

Let us grant that we men shall always have to mock our women in a mild way to assuage our feelings of inferiority over our far less significant role in nature. But when this mockery threatens the rights of the individual because of sex, it has gone too far.

Anyway, I like girls' hair cut short. Has H. A. Crosby Forbes ever felt the delightful contours of a woman's skull? Or run his fingers through her fine hair? Or kissed the back of her neck, without tasting dandruff? None of these delightful acts would be possible if great gobs of that stuff--hair--trailed down between her shoulder blades.

But the main contention of Mr. Forbes that I take issue with, is that in a rational society the only forgivable reason for a woman to cut her hair is to improve her looks. Nonsense! In a rational society the only forgivable reason is the greater comfort and convenience of short hair.

Those who resist progress--even temporary progress--because of its novelty, are behaving as immaturely as those who follow each passing fancy. There is no absolute standard for Femininity more than for any other value in nature. Ultimately, let us hope that with our assistance our feminine comrades will be set free from the bonds of vanity--the "improvement" of surface beauty by cosmetics, long hair, falsies, etc.--as we ourselves were, only two hundred years ago. David Drake '52