THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408070033
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
So, now they want to take a razor to her head.
As if giving Shannon Faulkner a buzz cut would somehow be payment for making the gender wall at The Citadel come tumbling down.
Go ahead, guys, ``Shave Shannon,'' like those bumper stickers all over South Carolina scream.
I agree. She asked for it. And she should get it. Lock, stock and buzz cut.
But do I think the corps is right to shear her locks? No way.
West Point's policy of collar-length hair would have worked just as well. But face it, the men folks at The Citadel are going to fight her every step of the way on this one. This is a rite of initiation, and they're gonna hope like hell she doesn't make it.
As she sits in that barber's chair, the electric razor taking its 15-second ride across her scalp, rest assured the cut is less about tradition and more about a swift elbow in the gut as she's going in the door.
But she has to tough it out and walk on through. And if she winces, even cries, when she faces her stubbled reflection, she may be the first woman to do that, but she darned sure won't be the first cadet.
But she'll handle it. After all, when they slammed the door on her last year, she rammed it back open with a lawsuit. When they printed T-shirts that said ``1,952 bulldogs and one bitch'' she wore one. When they heaped garbage on her car, she cleaned it off.
And once she's past the razor, she can expect more of the same. Because that's the price you pay when you plow new ground. Civil rights battles, whether they're fought by women, African-Americans or gays, aren't won in courtrooms. They're won over the long haul, during the day-to-day grind of life.
Sure, I know a military education isn't made of haircuts, uniform cut and tone of voice. It's about discipline, smarts and integrity, and no one needs to turn in their femininity at the door for that.
The upstanding traditions of military institutes aren't going to be degraded by collar-length hair. Discipline won't be watered down. The nation won't be at risk of invasion.
Military education, after all, is about creating leaders, not turning women into men. Some day that lesson will be obvious.
But for now the haircut is the price of the ticket, and we all know how expensive it is. Ask any cancer patient and they'll tell you that more than the sallow look of cancer, more than the nausea of chemotherapy, it's the painless loss of hair that hurts most. It makes you less human, less you. A woman's hair, after all, is like her signature.
But if Faulkner sticks with that slick new do, she won't just be yielding to the corps' razing of individuality. She'll be handing opportunity to my two daughters. And making it that much easier for a woman to barge in a door at the Virginia Military Institute.
So chin up, Faulkner. I wish I could tell you I'm going to bare my scalp in solidarity. Sorry, no hair day is that bad. But I can tell you this: As the mother of girls, thank you. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Shannon Faulkner
by CNB