Hayden's Hair

Hayden Panettiere was the most entertaining thing about Scream 4, and I'm glad to see her haircut getting its due in the annals of short cuts on women. (Guardian)

Short hair on female characters is rarely permitted to exist in its own right. It's a statement, a sign of playing men at their own game: for Keira Knightley, when she swaps modelling for bounty hunting in Domino; for Moore, with her military buzz-cut in GI Jane. Getting chopped is seldom something female characters do of their own volition. It deprives them of a formidable weapon, and, instead of giving them masculine strength, only emphasises their helplessness. Even in Rosemary's Baby, when Mia Farrow announces, "I've been to Vidal Sassoon" (her husband's sarky reply: "Don't tell me you paid for that"), she's unwittingly adding the finishing touch to her own martyrdom.