“I am oppressed.” – Yvonne Nguyen, a student attending a university with $47,616 annual tuition
Villanova University student and proud social justice warrior, Yvonne Nguyen, decided to shave her head to fight “oppressive gender norms.” You know, because of “hair privilege.” Yes, that’s now a thing.
“Daily, for over the past two years, I’ve wanted to shave my head,” wrote Nguyen via Facebook, explaining her foremost reason for taking clippers to her head. “Society’s gender norms have tried to define me, my actions, thoughts, my feelings, and my dress. I am oppressed. But, I’m not going to stand for it anymore.”
As for her second reason, the student said she wanted “to show solidarity for cancer patients and those with alopecia, I would like to remember the privilege I have in terms of being able to grow my hair out. I am privileged.”
And lastly, the SJW said the head-shaving is a way for her to “dedicate” herself fully to “social justice.”
In the video, the student also randomly cited “undocumented immigrants” as her motivation for the haircut. The connection between the two things remains unclear.
Bumping to Britney Spears and Beyoncé music in a bathroom at the pricey university, Nguyen and her friends livestreamed the painfully long head-shaving experience via Facebook, because what’s the point of fighting for social justice without getting a little attention out of it?
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“I’m saving all this money so I can go to grad school and save the world,” said a triumphant Nguyen, following the seemingly never-ending hair cut.
In a subsequent op-ed for her school paper, Nguyen recalled how gender stereotypes held her back in life and celebrated how “liberated” she now felt with a shaved head:
Over the past few years, I would cut my hair, but each time I was told by others that I didn’t look like a “true girl” until my hair was long, straight and silky. Small and constant comments about how to play the role of my gender were burdensome. I never felt like I would be fully accepted for being my true self. Throughout my life, I was told how to look, think, feel, act and be a girl in order to “fit in.” Society’s oppressive gender norms bound me. Shaving my head enabled me to be reflective of the ways society forces me to conform to labels that I didn’t choose. Shaving my head liberated me, as I allowed myself to be faithful to my values and genuine self.
Concluding her post, the student encouraged others to get in on the shaving game.
“One must forgo some of their undeserved privileges to provide justice for others,” she wrote. “Are you willing to shave?”
Although this stunt might have made Nguyen feel good, it did precisely zero to battle allegedly “oppressive gender norms.”
H/T Heat Street
