In modern America, appearance is everything, especially how one views him or herself. When a group of people feels subjugated by their environmental conditions, they view themselves critically, and someone must stand against the victimization and injustice.
A defining characteristic of a girl’s appearance is her locks: The tresses are curled or flattened, blow-dried and shampooed and conditioned with such great care that each strand is perfectly picturesque (until 30 minutes later when the wind creates a crow’s nest upon her head). But the ‘do will certainly still be the key to nailing that interview, getting that guy or impressing her friends at lunch. In essence, the hair gives a woman that extra boost in confidence she needs to conquer the world. But on bad hair days, girls tend to be more distracted, annoyed and insecure.
However, the care of one’s hair has become a challenge for some female students. When the shower head in one’s dorm only crests at approximately 5 feet 6 inches, give or take an inch depending on the shower head, the girl above the average height — 5 feet 4 inches, according to the Centers for Disease Control — is doomed to awkwardness and humiliation as she hits her head on the shower pipe and must crouch to rinse her hair or else consign herself to the far worse suffering of not having silky, shiny, dandruff-free hair. Many girls gripe that having to adjust the shower head and stand in different postures makes showering take a longer time.
What’s completely unfair is that the boys don’t have to suffer through this burdensome rite. As careful measuring has revealed, the shower heads in the boys’ bathrooms are higher than those in the girls’. In Simpson, the shower heads are around 6 feet 2 inches in height.
Men do tend to be taller than women, as the average male height is around 5 feet 10 inches. This means, though, that while the girls’ showers are only 2 inches taller than the female average height, the guys’ are 4 inches higher.
This limitation on the height of women’s showers demonstrates a restriction on their greater ambitions, creating a glass ceiling and fulfilling the truth of the war on women.
According to the American Psychology Association, taller people normally earn more money and have more confidence in themselves. However, with the height of the shower heads, women are forced to shorten themselves, which crumbles their self-esteem and makes them feel uncomfortable with their bodies.
Virtual reality studies have shown by making someone view the world from a shorter perspective, subjects report feelings of inferiority, weakness and incompetence.
There already exists a confidence gap between men and women, seeing that women are paid less than men, aren’t promoted as fast and there are fewer women in top positions in the business world. Not to mention, when women do assert themselves, they are made to feel guilty about it and called the “b-word”: bossy.
It is absurd that this patriarchal oppression of women in day-to-day life has been permitted to stand when we cannot stand in the shower. We must unite together in order to fight this unegalitarian persecution.
By forcing women most specifically to decrease their height, they feel less capable, and at an institution that demands students to perform at the highest of expectations, self-confidence is essential to achieving that goal.
The unequal difference in the height of the shower heads from that of the average height in the men’s and women’s dorms makes it just the more difficult for women to succeed and win the war against them and their fabulous hair.
