Girls with short hair being labelled as trans

God, what a depressing thread! I miss the music subcultures. Going goths and emo was an infinitely healthier expression of teenage angst and wanting to assert independence from parents than the current gender trend.

The worst a goth or emo would do is a few piercings or tattoos not life-long, life-altering and possibly life-limiting drugs and surgeries.

I saw this a while back, some of you might enjoy. Punks, goths and mods on Irish tv 1983

Will you be 'excited' about it when those girls start to use binders, take testosterone and have a double mastectomy?

I mean, girls with short hair were always asked 'Are you a boy or a girl?' (what wags!), as I can attest having had cropped hair from age 8 to my 30s.

I used to laugh at people who thought I would be insulted to be asked if I were a boy - if I couldn't take that I wouldn't have short hair! So I would take it that most of the kind of girls who would have short hair would probably not mind being asked if they're trans or NB etc, or for their pronouns. Generally, very 'girly girls' won't want short hair anyway.

“Maireas
In a diverse society she should be able to dress and style her hair how she wants.
I've never known so much "princessing" as exists now. “

That is true. You quite often even see little girls wearing tutus with wellingtons to play in the park.

It's just fashion, though isn't it?
Being trans is fashionable/tribal: dressing "like a boy" (ugh) signals that you are a girl following that trend. I think we've all decided previously that many girls are just experimenting with their gender identity, and aren't "really" boys. Many of them are just doing it to fit in.

It's just unfortunate for people who happen to like short hair, that short hair is equated with being a trans boy. But quite normal that people spot short hair and think, "ahh she's in that gang". Hair and clothes have always sent signals about identity; sometimes the signals are confusing when the same signal can be taken to mean different things.

When I was a teen I liked black clothes and dramatic makeup, but i wasnt a goth. Sometimes however i was mistaken for being a goth. I didnt take offence. People naturally assumed I was following the Goth herd; I wasn't. I didnt stop wearing what I liked wearing. And I didnt think, "oh wow maybe I'm a goth after all". I just ignored the idiots who labelled me.

I can't get that excited about who claims which hairstyle. Trends will come and go.

“grafittiartist

I definitely notice this. Such a shame.

When I was at school loads of girls had short pixie cuts, and the boys long hair.“

Yes, and in the 1960s think of Twiggy and Mia Farrow who were hardly masculine.

before you know it they are binding etc and the parents love it

fucking hell

My daughter had short hair and wore trousers to school. Another pupil asked her 'what are you?' Another asked what her pronouns were. Honestly it's such sexist rubbish. My daughter is very critical of gender identity ideology so gave a good rebuttal.

I've always had short hair apart from a brief mullet perm in the 80s. I have short hair as it is so fine and doesn't grow very fast. I was mistaken for a boy a few times on my paper round, but as soon as I spoke people knew their mistake. To much hilarity to my daughtersI was called sir once driving up to a reception area, the man was more embarrassed than me. I think in the early 90s there was some assumptions I was a lesbian but I thought it was a stupid assumption to make.

I'm in a few groups for autistic parents and the pro trans stuff is really bugging me. Many autistic girls have short hair due to sensory issues, but before you know it they are binding etc and the parents love it.

It is so sad that the idea of a girl/woman's appearance is so narrow. Definitely gone backwards.

The women's institute I attend has many women in their 60s, 70s and 80s as members. I often think how gender non conforming they look. Everyone has short hair, no make up, most wear trousers and everyone wears flat shoes.

Of course to a woman they've spent their lives caring for others and facilitating their lives, often to the detriment of their ability to support themselves in old age. So they're incredibly sex conforming.

anyway, I don't see any blue haired TRAs campaigning on the behalf of these particular gender non conforming people

It’s just mental isn’t it?

When I was studying psychology I remember there was a study that asked small kids if they out a cat mask on a dog would it then be a dog or a cat. Most three or found year olds can work it out. I asked my niece (who was 3 at the time) and she looked at me as if I was crazy and called me silly.

I have short hair and I am not trans. I shaved my head because my hair was in very bad condition.

My 9 year old dd recently asked to cut her hair very short, I hesitated worrying about these comments. She has very short hair, wear trousers and lace up brogues to school. I admire her confidence, she doesn’t seem to give a shiny shit about any comments about her being a boy.

Her totally opposite twin sister has long, floaty hair.

Very true, @BernardBlack!

Yanbu.

Happens with son. He's 5 for fucks sake. He has longish hair, which is his choice. He wants it "like Elsa". He likes glittery shit, unicorn, rainbows and pink. He enjoys wearing princess dresses (the fancy dress type). HE IS 5. He's doing what 5yo do. He is not trans. He knows he's a bit, he likes being a boy. He likes pink and traditionally girly stuff.

The current trans ideology further stereotypes and pigeonholes socially constructed ideas and reduces freedom of choice and expression. I hate it.

@CandyLeBonBon

Watch the ftm agenda. My daughter was at a girls school. The 'populars' played with her mental health. She had gone there after an incident at a mixed school. She needed decent friends and support. She got a very different agenda even from some teachers! One potential school even told us her place was refused as they didn't have the ability to cope with transgender people! Should have called the police. Too shocked to complain.
Five years on I have a kind, gentle dc whatever hairstyle /gender they favour.

Sometimes on job apps I refuse gender and sexuality just because I can. Nosy buggers. My best friend is a out lesbian and she has long blonde waist length hair.
Bloody fashion, bloody socia media influencers.
@Maireas
Thank you.

Not the same as my DD is only 3 but she has a pixie cut and she is mistaken for a boy quite frequently when we go out (even when she's wearing e.g. pink boots with butterflies on - not that boys shouldn't be able to wear these but on balance I would assume a child wearing them is a girl to be honest). I don't think she's noticed this but she has told me that she 'looks like a boy' because of her short hair. I tried to fish to see if someone at nursery had said that to her and she said it was one of the staff members...who knows if that is true or not as she certainly says things that aren't accurate sometimes. Very sad as she is otherwise very happy with her hair.

It’s absolutely depressing womanhood is being both squeezed and marginalised, I optimistically hope this will start to turn soon.

The hair thing I suppose is partly that almost all girls/woman seem to have had long hair for 25 years, something that wasn’t the case before the 90s.

It's bloody ridiculous but not unexpected at all.
To be fair, I've worn my hair short at various times in my teens and twenties, and it did tend to confuse/upset/annoy some people already back then (similarly, DH got flack for having long hair around the same age). Homophobic insults would be the norm back then. Wouldn't be surprised if in the modern version, genuine transphobia (on top of the obvious mysoginy of attempting to control how a girl/woman present herself) was involved in the people making these comments.

My advice to a young person having to deal with that kind of conformist crap, would be to defy all expectations. As a teen, I had short hair, but I also liked wearing earrings and painting my nails. And martial arts. And all plants and animals. And computer programming. Etc.
In other words, proudly own everything that makes them, and answer absurd assumptions about their gender with a "Of course not, why? Sounds really sexist" (although the appropriate term would really be "genderist" nowadays...)

My DD wanted/has short hair because it’s just easier to look after but this has resulted in frequent comments about her being a boy and assumptions about orientation. Completely agree that the number of tribes has diminished and we’ve entered Hand Maid’s Tale territory with gender stereotyping norms. Driven by marketing with two extremes of choosing between diamanté Lelli Kelli’s or dinosaurs and precious little in between. Influencing a whole generation of young girls for the worse.

Didn’t that actor who played aqua man have long hair? I didn’t see anyone asking him is he was a woman.

Yep, my dd has had short hair since being 5, her choice.
It has got shorter over the years and at 14 she rocks a crop.
Sadly, she has had trouble at school from day 1. The latest barb is he/she.

The ignorance of these boys is astounding.

I had very short hair throughout my teens as did all my friends. No one thought we were boys. 🙄