Bald Women: Difference between revisions

Disch further points out that the bald woman actually represents "empowerment". By playing off well-known [[Hair Tropes]], bald women show that they transcend their femininity and become stronger as a result. Whether this character development occurs or not depends on the character.

 

 

{{examples}}

 

* Mahoja in ''[[D.Gray-man]]''.

* Parodied in ''Master Of Epic'', in which a band of female players try to fight a monster that ends up giving them bad haircuts. Their solution to beat it? Shave their heads totally bald. {{spoiler|However, it doesn't quite work out the way they planned...}}

* Lata in the manga ''[[Buddha]]'' starts off as a pretty girl with beautiful black hair, but when she becomes one of Buddha's disciples...

* {{spoiler|Kriem}} in Episode 18 of ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]''. {{spoiler|Most likely, the hospital staff shaved her head to keep her from wreaking havoc when she woke up.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* Sometimes, Delirium from ''[[The Sandman]]''.

* Many female characters in [[Alejandro Jodorowsky]]'s ''[[Megalex]]'', but especially the gorgeous, well endowed [[Adam Ã]]¢.

* ''[[Wet Moon]]''.

* Prudence is a member of the League of Assassins that becomes an uneasy ally to Tim Drake after he adopts the Red Robin identity.

* In the original run of ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]'', there was a Nazi counterpart team called Lightning Force, whose version of Kitty Pryde was a bald, anorexic ghost.

* Zelda from the comic book ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]]''

 

== Films ==

** This can be explained away as function over fashion. They're in a situation where everyone who can hold a gun and shoot semi-competently is a soldier fighting for survival. Long hair tends to be a hindrance in such an environment. It's also quite likely that Zion has to ration water quite carefuly, and shorter hair is much less of a hassle to keep clean.

* As mentioned above, in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', Evey gets her head shaved. In the movie, [[Natalie Portman]] actually [[Dyeing for Your Art|had her head shaved on-screen]], instead of wearing a bald cap.

* ''[[Heaven]]'' with Kate Blanchett.

* [[Toni Collette]] in ''8½ Women'' by Peter Greenaway

* The Irish lead character of ''Ryan's Daughter''

* [[Repo! The Genetic Opera|Shilo]], though it's shown in only one scene (she wears a wig most of the time).

 

== Literature ==

<small>If kingdom move thee not, let move thee zeal</small>

<small>And duty--zeal and duty are not slow,</small>

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Jonathan Creek]]'' had a one-episode love interest who turned out to be completely bald underneath a wig, a fact that Maddy was exceedingly catty about. Of course, this revelation turned out to be one of the less surreal moments of their brief relationship.

* In an early episode of ''[[Panico Na Band]]'' (The successor series to ''[[Panico Na TV]]''), Babi, one of the [[Lovely Assistant|Panicats]], had her long blond hair shaved off. She definitely looked like a true babe nonetheless!

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* [[Dilbert]] once met a woman like this. She also had a big brain.

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In one of the sourcebooks for ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'', there is a young 20-something who keeps her head bald because her nimbus manifests as sparks running along her scalp serving as a sample character (for the Pygmalian Society in ''Legacies: The Sublime''). This electricity is not strictly ''real'', but the feeling of lightning through her hair is unsettling enough that she prefers to just keep her head shaved bald (if asked about it, the book states that she'll claim to be making a statement on 'gender or something'). Interestingly enough, she actually has the [[Hello, Nurse!|Striking Looks merit]], indicating that she's actually exceptionally ''attractive'' in her own unique way (not [[Angelina Jolie]] level, as that's the higher-level version of the merit, but still attractive enough to draw eyes) and it's mentioned that she's been featured on covers of magazines a few times. Judging from the page art, she deserves the merit.

* In ''[[Deadlands]]: Hell on Earth'', all [[Psychic Powers|sykers]] are absolutely bald. Including women.

* In ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' Thay has a custom of shaving heads - Red Wizards and everyone else with status worth a mention has a bald head and often a tattoo or several on it. This includes women, but given that anyone important from Thay is likely to be an arrogant representative of their evil magocracy and/or engaged in slave-trading,<ref>there are refugees, but since they would rather not be identified on sight to begin with, they tend to abandon this tradition</ref> the aesthetical side of their traditions rarely becomes a prominent concern.

 

* Karan Sjet in the ''[[Homeworld]]'' series. The box art for ''Homeworld 2'' features Karen's portrait and her bald head.

* Jack (aka Subject Zero) from ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. Apparently, she kept the look [[Important Haircut|after a stint in a cult]]. In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' (provided, she survives), she adopts a less antisocial attitude and a longer haircut to go with it, though half of her scalp is still clean-haven.

* The dark elves from ''[[Dungeon Keeper]] 2''. Overlaps with [[Bald of Evil]].

* In ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'', it seems to be a religious thing, maybe as an extension of the hiding-women's-hair rules of some real religions.

 

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Zoe was bald for some time. While changed into a camel, she bit off Gwynn's hair; Gwynn retaliated with a spell that made Zoe lose all of her hair.

* The succubi from ''[[Oglaf]]''.

* Arkady from ''[[Freak Angels]]''.

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'', Roy Greenhilt learned a lesson during an emergency use of the Belt of Gender-Changing; "If the magic item doesn't specifically ''say'' it grows hair, it probably doesn't." He ended up using a mop-head for a wig.

 

== Western Animation ==

* One ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|Simpsons]]'' episode had a completely random, bald, female background character who was never expanded upon.

* Many female characters in ''[[Gandahar]]'' - most notably, Queen Ambisextra and her Councilwomen.

 

== Real Life ==

* An effect of chemotherapy for various forms of cancer is often the loss of hair, so many women with this look in [[Real Life]] qualify as [[Badass]] for beating back the disease. It's also fairly common for her friends and family members to shave their heads for her in solidarity.

* Scottish TV presenter Gail Porter lost her hair when she developed alopecia.

* [[Britney Spears]] was known for being bald a couple of years ago.

* Buddhist Nuns are notable for their shaven scalps.

 

{{reflist}}