Tag Archives: subway

Emma Watson’s “Pixie Cut” and Revisiting the Femininity of Long Hair

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In the summer of 1998, the worst year of my life, I had my hair cut off. Gone. Done. I have always had long hair (more for the versatility than anything else), and suddenly it was less than an inch long. My head felt very light, which was kind of trippy and cool until I got used to it, and the ease with which I could take care of it was unbelievable.

Only problem? I look pretty fugly with short hair. Still, I look back on that hair era somewhat fondly, particularly when I’m sweating out the horrible heat and humidity that has permeated the Northeast this summer.

And that’s why I’m ridiculously jealous when celebrities go for the pixie and effectively pull it off. It’s not that I feel inferior to women like Michelle Williams and Keira Knightley for being able to look gorgeous with super-short hair. I mean, they are obviously more beautiful than I could ever hope to be, and that’s why they’re movie stars and I try to get a bunch of teenagers to appreciate Transcendentalist poetry.

Nope, my green-eyed monster is all about the ease of a thirty second shampoo and maybe five minutes to blow dry and style it.

Anyway, Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame is the latest star to show the world how incredibly beautiful she truly is by successfully working the pixie cut. I think it looks absolutely amazing on her. I mean, I’m heterosexual so it’s not a sexual thing (like looking at Brad Pitt in his prime would be), but I can’t help appreciating the bone structure, the almost ethereal art-like quality that Watson is exuding.

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Of Subways and Dragons: Man Loses Life For Trying to Show a Woman That Chivalry is Not Dead (But He Is)

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Good Samaritan Jose Gomez paid with his life when he jumped in front of a subway train to help out a friend who was chasing her lost jacket. Was this a case of a friend helping a friend, or chivalry gone terribly wrong?

From WCBSTV:

Jose Gomez could have stayed back on the train station platform, but the 29-year-old Good Samaritan made a fateful decision to help his friend, Beatriz Briceno.

It happened at the 36th Avenue Station in Astoria at about 10:40 p.m. Friday.

Gomez was with Briceno when her coat fell onto the elevated tracks. Investigators say she jumped from the platform to the tracks to get it, and Gomez followed her. Both were hit by the oncoming train.

The train’s operator told police it appeared that Gomez pushed Briceno, so that he took the direct and fatal hit instead of her.

Okay, I’m going to be honest with you. I like to have doors held open for me by men. I’m kind of into ordering first at a restaurant. Oh, and, uh, one of my great fantasies starts with a gentleman throwing his coat across a mud puddle. In a rainstorm. But I won’t go there. I’m an Equity Feminist, though, so I guess that makes sense.

When I first read this news story, I was reminded of the saying about a good friend going to visit you in jail but a best friend will be sitting in the cell next to you laughing about the adventure that got you there. However, the image of Jose Gomez going after a flyaway coat and ultimately taking a hit for Beatriz Briceno quickly brought up images of the knight in shining armor going forward into certain death to save the life of a maiden fair (or faire, I suppose).

Based on what his family and friends had to say, he’s definitely a guy that would fit that mold:

“He’s the best brother,” sister Kimberli Gomez said.

Kimberli spoke on her devastated family’s behalf about her hero brother outside their Schaefer Street home in Brooklyn.

“He [would] always think about somebody else before himself,” she said.

And:

Gomez moved to the U.S. from Venezuela three years ago and was working in a restaurant. Neighbors say they’re shocked by his death, but not shocked to learn of his bravery.

“Very nice guy, very quiet,” one neighbor said.

“I feel sad,” neighbor Antonio Toro said. “I feel very, very sad.”

Oh, and just so you know, Beatriz Briceno is in serious but stable condition and is expected to survive.

This is obviously a horrible tragedy, and I’m not trying to imply that Gomez’s actions were anything short of heroic. I just can’t help wondering if Jose Gomez viewed the incoming subway as a fire-breathing dragon and saw his role as dragon slayer.

Thoughts?



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