Unorthodox Sheitel
Proving the Inherent Dangers to Women’s hair in Ultra-Orthodox Communities
Being at home scrolling Netflix for the latest shows I stumbled upon “Unorthodox” about a Jewish family in a Orthodox neighborhood of Brooklyn, that goes through love, loss and the depression of daily life. As this quarantine drags on my spirits are low as I haven’t been able to witness long hair in public in over 6 weeks. To quench my insatiable thirst for long hair content I perused Netflix and came across a traumatizing image that still makes me gasp for breath as if I had covid-19 itself (and I almost wish I did). A perfectly attractive young girl crying while having her hair seemingly forcibly removed from her head. Although the image was so disgusting I had to turn away, morbid curiousity told me to take a closer look. Hell maybe I could help these women and save their long hair from destruction in the future. After all I do NOT like short hair, and no one else does either. As I watched the show, barely able to contain my gag reflux I realized there’s an entire community of young women in Brooklyn, New York who are being massively oppressed by men and tradition in that they are forced to cut off their long hair and wear an ugly shtisel in it’s place for modesty’s sake. It’s absolutely terrible that so many women aren’t free to express themselves in the way many other women take for granted through their unique long beautiful hair. I think it would be my nightmare to go from hair diversity to a sea of ugly, acrylic, mouse brown Karen wigs. My initial shock from witnessing this mutilating ritual was coupled with an intense desire to see how the hair oppressed women within this cult felt.
The more research I did the worse I felt for these women. The women in the orthodox community who dare to wear long beautiful shtisel made of real human hair and in a variety of prismatic, highlighted shades are called prostitutes and shunned at gatherings. All this for wanting to express their individuality. In this community if a married woman leaves her house without a head covering she is disgraced and her head is shaved again. This is all according to 1 Corinthians 11:2-6, which is a part of the Bible the Jews don’t even consider the word of god! This all makes me think the men of that community are either secretly gay or they’re sadists disguised as pious men who want to humiliate and brainwash women.
The truth is, not all religions have proven to be negative for long hair. In fact in most sects of Christianity women with long hair are revered and celebrated. Many famous quiverfull women such as Michelle Duggar grow their hair long and are encouraged to do so by their normal red-blooded husbands who like everyone else prefers long hair. In the FLDS community women do not cut their hair instead they use it as they should as a beautiful adornment, braided by their many mothers and sisters with care. Nazarene women are not allowed to cut their hair once and therefore maintain a direct connection with God through their hair. Many Native American women feel their long hair acts as antennae and thus heightens their senses and vibrations. unfortunately hair has been seen as immodest or as threatening to other women therefore it is portrayed negatively in the media as something worn by those who live in the past by more oppressive standards. This is not true. Ask women from any of the aforementioned groups in this paragraph how their long hair makes them feel. They’ll tell you what feels natural and the media tries to suppress. This being that long hair is better than short hair.
At the end of the day cults aren’t all bad. Some cults actually encourage their women to keep their long flowing hair which to me shows the women aren’t oppressed. Cults which force women to cover or shed their beauty in the name of modesty however are pure evil and must be stopped. Women should have the right to grow their hair long like all women secretly want to do. no woman wants short hair and no husband should ever force his wife to cut her hair short. He should get on grindr instead like the rest of the DL guys in the world.