Pedestrian View

I have some experience with what Dave grapples with in this piece.  I’m a man.  I have a wife, Sherry.  Sherry asks me regularly about her hair.  Writes Barry, “If you’re a man, and a woman asks you how she looks, you’re in big trouble.

Back in 1987, there was one perm Sherry got that I didn’t particularly care for; otherwise, her hair looks great (to me) all the time.  It’s brown and soft and sits serenely atop her head like a sweet songbird’s nest on a warm June evening (you’re right - I should say no to the poetry).  To her, however, her hair doesn’t look great, or at least she’s uncertain about how it looks in some respect because we keep coming back to the same conversation.

“Do you like my hair this way?”

Like Barry, I’m trapped, only she doesn’t get upset with me like Barry’s wife apparantly does; Sherry just doesn’t believe me.  If I say, “It looks great,” she rolls her eyes at me because, though she keeps asking for it, she knows my opinion is worthless.  Still, it’s the answer I stick with because the alternatives are not pretty.

Ultimately, Barry’s observations about the differences between how the sexes groom themselves, and how they obsess (or don’t obsess) about it, have a ring of truth to them.  I also applaud him for acknowledging the roll that Barbie has played in this phenomenon. 

As a father of three daughters, the beauty obsession also concerns me as they mature.  So far, they seem to be sensible about it, but I know that a beauty obsession can lead to serious health and mental health issues.  While Barry’s piece is funny, it points us toward the more serious issues that our culture’s beauty obsession has for women.

In the mean time, I’ve scheduled an appointment with my barber for tomorrow.  This hair is driving me crazy!