I’ve been playing this mobile game lately and the ads are absolute madness. I know this is something I everyone seems to talk about. From TikTok to Twitter to Facebook, there are mobile game ads that are the most insane things you have ever seen. But for whatever reason, this one always sticks out to me. So the game is called Project Makeover. It starts with a woman and her husband in some traveling scenario (it’s always traveling I swear to god). Some sort of bump always gets the husband to completely fall in love with some other girl that they bumped into. Then you’re presented with two choices, the modern blue pill and red pill: endure or makeover. Of course, the ad chooses makeover for us. And here’s what always gets me. The first option is to change the hair. The option they always choose is to shave the girl’s hair. And it always (ALWAYS) makes the girl upset. Which makes me feel weird. I had a bit of a convo on gender earlier this week (that I was thinking of finishing). And like, I’m just weirded out by people who still think a person choosing to do whatever they want with their hair even fucking matters. People born as or who identify as women shouldn’t be beholden to the idea that just because they choose to have short hair, it means they are no longer attractive. It’s very dumb, very not good for society. I currently have long hair as a cis man. And yeah, my family doesn’t really love it (mostly they don’t like how kind of unkempt it is, to which I will work on…) but no one in my day to day really cares. In fact, I’ve gotten compliments on it (lmao).

I’m not trying to write this idea that “omg women are judged???? I am just now discovering this as a man! This is awful!!!1111.” Definitely not trying to be that kind of guy. But it’s still a necessary discussion. Especially as the world is trying to understand the basis and role gender plays into our society. Basically, your hair doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of how people should find you attractive. You have so many more qualities that can be the basis for someone’s attraction toward you. Plus, it’s all based on an arbitrary set of things outside of your control. Life is stupid like that, I guess…