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In defence of ponytails

Andrew EdePalma15/01/2020 09:46

Will there come a time when Pablo Iglesias decides to dispense with his ponytail? Now that the leader of Podemos is one of four deputy prime ministers, will he adopt convention, get a short haircut and don a suit and tie? In amassing greater funds for his new ministry for social rights, perhaps there could be a live broadcast for the shearing of the Iglesias hair. Pledges of money to witness such an event could flood in and swell the social rights coffers.

Showing respect to his office and all that, but I doubt that he will be off to the barber anytime soon. How is it disrespect anyway? Iglesias presents a different image of a politician. In an era of diversity and equality, what is so wrong with there being a leading political figure who reflects a strand of society?

Diversity - gender, colour, religion, disability, sexuality - it should all be mirrored by the political class, which is - and it can sometimes forget this - as much a part of society as those it claims to serve. And ponytails are surely no different. Inclusivity demands rights to have a ponytail. Now a fortysomething, there will be those who say, regardless of his being a politician, that the time has come for the Iglesias ponytail to go. But why? There are septuagenarians in society boldly making ponytail statements that they have an abundance of hair when many of their peers do not.

The ponytail. It is a social right.