Actress Felicia Day cut her hair a few months ago — this is a thing people noticed, naturally. And thanks to comments and social media, anyone can throw in their two cents about her new look. Thing is, sometimes, those two cents are hilariously misguided and wrong.
The picture above, for example — which was blogged by Felicia Day herself — is supposed to be a before/after shot that compares Day’s current haircut to her old haircut. The purpose was to highlight how poor of a choice her haircut is supposed to be (or something). One problem: the first girl isn’t even Felicia Day. Um. Not that that stopped people from sharing the image. Day had a sense of humour about it, of course — referencing the people who made the image, she wrote:
I will not credit or point them out, because the BEST THING TO DO is laugh and just block trolls. Giving them attention is exactly what they want. But I had to share the picture because:
THE GIRL ON THE LEFT IS NOT EVEN ME!!! THEY CANT TELL TWO WOMEN APART WHO HAVE THE SAME HAIR COLOUR!!!
I was laughing so hard this morning I had to share. I mean…come ON, dudes. It’s so obvious.
My boobs are WAY smaller than hers.
Yesterday, Day blogged about her short hair and the disappointment she feels when she thinks about how much people focus on her looks. “The [comments] that confuse and hurt me the most are like this one I got last week: ‘Love your videos, will be back when you grow your hair out,’” Day wrote.
“My hair doesn’t affect what words come out of my mouth…but he can’t see me as anything else, I guess. Guys like him tune in because I’m attractive to them. Without long hair, I’m not attractive to them. Ergo…goodbye. The substance of my work doesn’t matter because my looks are the only context they have for me in their lives. And that makes me sad, because I’ve always tried to be more than that, without screaming it in people’s faces,” she continued.
The haircut, she clarifies, is not meant to be some political statement, and she doesn’t completely blame some commenters for reacting the way they do. Thing is, society has primed people to consider a woman’s look as something that is reflective of her work, or perhaps more important than her work. Even when you know a woman’s work has merit, her looks can still tint the way you judge her. Hillary Clinton is constantly hounded and criticised when it comes to her hair and fashion sense, for example — people talk a ton about how she styles her hair, how long it is, what she looks like, and so on. Famously, in 2010, after being asked about her fashion sense in an interview, she responded “Would you ever ask a man that?”
She’s just one example out of many.
Perhaps commenter Jens Wessling put it best when responding to Day’s blog post about her hair:
Comments
42 responses to “Critics Of Felicia Day’s Hairdo Don’t Even Know What She Looks Like”
I’ve never even heard of this person. Was she in something good or something?
Anyway, isn’t this more like a Popsugar thing?
She was in that video series called ‘The Guild’, which is loosely based on video games so it kinda fits that its on Kotaku. Check the show out, its been a LONG time since I’ve watched it but its not bad from memory.
^ What he said. lol. She also created it and appeared in it, and sorta like a geek icon amongst some, i guess…
And is way overhyped
Not many people know who she is outside of her relatively small group of fans. So it’s hard to say she’s overrated.
Big fan of the guild, watched it all on xbox
Yeah, I’ve never really got what the big deal is with Felicia Day. I’ve never seen the Guild, and really my only exposure to her work is in that Dragon Age DLC and Supernatural. Based on that I honestly don’t think she’s that great an actress. I mean, if you like her work then more power to ya, but I just don’t get it.
She became famous for creating the Guild as well as starring in it, which is often credited as one of the earlier examples of a successful original webseries, which was at least in part inspiration for Joss Whedon to create the superb Dr Horrible and cast her as one of the leads.
Since then she’s founded a Youtube channel (Geek and Sundry) and appears to largely work as a producer for that now.
So she has become a bit of a nerd/internet icon and very much aligns herself as a gamer.
That said it’s all somewhat irrelevant to why it should be here, it’s a pretty awful example of sexism within the gaming community which is a common (If unpopular) topic on Kotaku.
Like for Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blob. 😀
She is also a voice actor in some games. Here’s her IMDB page (I mainly remember her for Dragon Age II and Fallout New Vegas): http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1260407/
As well as The Guild, she was in Season 7 of Buffy (one of the potentials) and Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. You should watch Dr Horrible, it’s awesome.
She was also in some kind of Dragon Age tie-in movie thing that I never saw (and obviously don’t know much about).
She’s been in supernatural as well. Google it, it’s pretty funny. And there was a Dragon Age DLC based on an elvish assassin for which her likeness and voice was used.
Not at all, she’s like the Queen Geek. Starred in the mega popular Web series The Guild, based on WoW, has her own youtube network called Geek and Sundry which has the super popular show Tabletop hosted by man himself Wil Wheaton.
No idea who she is, but most women look better with long hair. it’s not a judgement, just my preference.
It’s totally fair to say you prefer women with long hair. Where it gets ugly is when people start saying “All women should have long hair, because I like it long.” It implies that women exist to be attractive to other people, which is incredibly offensive to pretty much all of us.
Edit: typo
It’s not really WRONG or UGLY to say something like this. I mean, I suppose if you want to see ugliness in it, then fine, but I don’t think someone being a bit hyperbolic in expressing their personal preference as particularly offensive. If someone said, “All girls should be blonde because I love blondes!” or “All men should be tall, because I love tall dark men!” we’d just roll our eyes at them and move along. They’re oversharing in a public forum, not “assaulting” anyone.
I got a hair cut a while ago……..anyone want to talk about it?? I got a number 3 on the back and sides with a bit of length on top….it all looks quite dashingly handsome. So how is your hair??
High five! I got 3 back and side with short and messy on top!
Bangin
Edit: AAAAAND! There was no sign of any bald patch at the back of my head which is fear I have every time they hold a mirror to the back of head.
BANG BANG!
Did people on youtube comments tell you how stupid it is? If so let kotaku know you might get an article on here about it.
This has been my haircut for years. You’ll never look back on an old picture and think “What the fuck was I thinking with that haircut?”
Neat, tidy, and low maintenance is always in style. It’s the jeans of haircuts.
Of all the things I ever did to win my grandfather’s approval in his old age, one of them was starting to get my head buzzed down to at least a 3 and often shorter. “A haircut you can set your watch to,” he called it.
The other was wearing a suit to family gatherings. I guess the two really timeless things a man can do in fashion.
Jeans of the haircut, eh?
…does this mean that a double-mullet will be in vogue soon? Asking for a friend.
Pretty long (shoulder length-ish).
It usually stays about that length, and I don’t cut my hair very often, because short hair is for chumps.
Noone cares, you’re not Felicia Day
If you were a girl it might be important.
Yeah. I say, gimme something that says, “I get up every morning at 5:30 and commute for an hour and a half to some bullshit job, while my jag-off boss expects me to kiss his balls all day just so I can afford to keep my ungrateful screaming kids decked out on Dora the Explora shit and my wife, up to her fat ass in self-help videos until the day I get enough courage to put a shotgun in my mouth.”
I get a 2 all over most of the time, sometimes I get a 1. And you know what’s weird is that the girls in the office frequently give me the same reaction!
“You shouldn’t have got it cut so short! It looks better long!” they say! Even my own mother gets in on the act, complaining that it makes me look like a thug and she’s just waiting for the inevitable biker-gang-association arrest.
No love for us who cut our hair short. 🙁
I’ve got a #1 on the left side, rather long fringe (sits at my top lip if I pull it down), and probably a #3-4 on the right side. These have grown out heaps since the cut, but hey, you can still tell what it’s about I think.
Also haven’t shaved since NYE, so I look kinda raggedy.
And the left is Karen Gillan if I’m not mistaken?
not enough freckles to be pond?
This seems to be the source of the image: http://nemovalkyrja.deviantart.com/art/Get-Off-My-Lawn-133410432
I think she looked better with the longer hair, but I’m under no illusion that it really matters what I think about her appearance. Besides, I watch her videos for her personality and the dynamic she has with her brother in the Co-Optitude series, not what she looks like.
People who so vehemently hate short hair are weird.
I am sure it’s much worse because she is female, but this really isn’t the gender specific issue it is being made out to be…
Here is an article critical of Brad Pitt’s new hair style.
http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2014/01/sag-awards-2014-whats-going-on-with-brad-pitts-hair.html
When you are a public figure people will have opinions on your appearance.
Male or female, a sky-blue pant suit with shoulder pads is never okay.
Shoulder pads – Not even once.
But seriously, I had trouble telling the two apart in the image. But I’ve realised lately that I suck at telling the difference between people. Even my own wife (but don’t tell her that), when we’re out shopping and I think I see her at the end of the aisle.
But of course, this doesn’t excuse a person from bagging someone about their hairstyle.
“Hey babe, I saw a woman today who looked just like you!”
“…Did you think she was pretty?”
“…”
IT’S A TRAP. NO WAY OUT. YOU ARE DOOMED.
http://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/jetpack/
She’s gorgeous, long hair or short hair!
Critique all you want… I think she still looks great regardless, maybe Patricia’s just jealous
http://www.newstatesman.com/laurie-penny/2014/01/women-short-hair-political-statement
Really looks like prejudice is ruining her life.
I personally think she is more attractive with long hair, but that being said, it won’t stop me from watching her videos as I think she has a great personality and sense of humor that has nothing to do with her appearance. That being said, even with short hair, I think she’s still pretty darn cute.