Writing science fiction; fictional interview about the "Gray Wars" issue? I had thought it might be interesting to write one of those sf fictional interviews, with the "Gray Wars" -- aging women, dying gray/grey/white hair "obligatory" for success, and so on -- as its subject.
[There are three of those interviews in this journal, at:
http://ozarque.livejournal.com/421074.html ,
http://ozarque.livejournal.com/421575.html ,
and
http://ozarque.livejournal.com/423028.html ...
and there's a how-to post about writing them at
http://ozarque.livejournal.com/421642.html .]
But when I sat down to try to write it I ran into trouble. Suppose it's true that women in the U.S. -- with very rare exceptions -- can't succeed in the workplace or in public life if they have gray or white hair. Then what?
What if
all the women facing this problem...
1. Dyed their hair exactly the same shade -- for example, exactly the same shade of dumb-blonde blonde?
2. Dyed their hair
gray or white?
3. Shaved their heads?
4. Applied for grants that would support them for at least a year during their protest, and then, after the grants had been approved [this is science fiction, remember] dyed their hair gray or white?
5. Dyed their hair green with purple streaks, using temporary coloring products, and then marched in the streets carrying banners and posters with slogans protesting the dye-your-hair-or-else rule?
6. Dyed their hair anything but gray or white, and then marched in the streets carrying banners and posters with slogans supporting the dye-your-hair-or-else rule?
You'll notice that all of these possible strategies require the women in question to work together instead of competing against one another. Alternatively, what if....
One very powerful woman -- Oprah Winfrey, for example, or a female President of the United States -- dyed her hair gray or white and set up a national campaign inviting other women to do the same?
Lots of possible interviews there, you perceive.
And then there's the factor that has only been mentioned in a comment: the long-term hormone replacement therapy (LTHRT) factor. Many women in their 50s/60s/70s today look much younger than their counterparts in previous generations because they went on LTHRT the minute they reached menopause and have stayed on it for decades, and LTHRT postpones many of the physical changes that are typical of natural aging in women. As you've pointed out, the cultural rule underlying this hair thing isn't really "to succeed, women have to dye their hair" but "to succeed, women have to look no older than 39." Given what we now know about the serious health dangers of LTHRT, just avoiding gray or white hair might not be enough in future; the choice might become not just "to dye or not to dye" but "to dye or not to dye"
plus "to go on LTHRT or not to go on LTHRT." Then what?
There's also the fact that any rebellion against the "no older than 39" rule threatens the cosmetics industry, the diet industry, and the pharmaceutical industry; surely those corporations wouldn't go away quietly.
I'm stuck. It may be that -- since I'm a woman who doesn't give a fig how she looks as long as she's clean, and who flatly refused LTHRT -- I'm entirely the wrong person to write this interview. Maybe some of the rest of you, who perceive the world differently, should do it instead.
Over to you.