The Grand Unified Appearance Trope Clean-up:

Actually, if you look at the good examples of Power Blonde, you'll find that they almost all have the same haircut, Power Hair. Power Hair is not restricted by hair colour and is just about the narrative connotations of the style rather than a loose collection of blondes.

I don't think Blonde + Power Hair is a trope.

This is a trope about hair cut, then? Not hair colour?

I think so. Power Hair seems specific to politicians, but I think there's room for short haired female warriors as well. That would cover a lot of the other goodish examples.

Hmm, I would have guessed, just from the name, that Power Blonde was a trope about blondes in a leadership role because of "Aryan" ideals. Which probably is a trope, but I agree that what we actually have is not.

'Power blonde' might be a pre-existing term. This ABC news article says, "But if Clinton intends to stay natural, perhaps she can find inspiration from a "power blonde" like Margaret Thatcher, who didn't seem to let her hair color diminish her ability to lead."

I'd hesitate to expand Power Hair to cover a female warrior with short hair, simply because in that case, there's a pragmatic reason for her to have short hair, while the Power Hair trope is "short haircut as opposed to the supposed feminine 'norm' of long or longish hair, used to indicate that the woman is in a position of political or social power."

Expanding Power Hair to "female with short hair, either to indicate that she's in a position of power, or that she's an Action Girl, or that she's a Woman Warrior" seems to be setting it firmly into the territory we're trying to take the other personal appearance tropes out of: a personal appearance characteristic that may have been chosen for any one of several, unrelated reasons.

edited 17th Dec '12 3:46:28 PM by Madrugada

We have Boyish Short Hair for action girls with short hair.

Ah, that's the other trope I wanted. It just doesn't have a name that lends itself to the idea of short haired action girl.

edited 17th Dec '12 5:30:16 PM by shimaspawn

@205 Sounds like that's about defying Dumb Blonde.

Maybe, but if it's being used outside of this site it counts as a pre-existing term, doesn't it? Another article from the New York Times says, Mrs. Thatcher is a good example of the power blonde, said Ms. Pitman, who selected the photographs for British Blondes. She became more blond as she rose in the political ranks. By the end, her helmet of rigid blond hair symbolized her authority over this country. With Lady Diana, who spent a fortune dyeing her hair blond, it enabled her to appear as a victim, as a motherly person and as a sexy blond. She knew the effect on the media.

"Pre-existing term" doesn't always equal "trope"

Calling: Shiny Midnight Black is to be cut.

Time to clean the wicks. Go to town.

Pending the removal of wicks on locked pages and the cutting of the laconic, we're done.

And it's practically done. Only three locked pages and the Laconic page are left.

Wow, that was fast!

I took out the locked pages. Dunno if the cut will be accepted due to inbounds, but if it isn't, we're gonna redirect it somewhere and make sure it stays forgotten.

Now, other business. While Power Blonde may be a pre-existing term, that doesn't salvage it. A pre-existing term is to be considered when we're arguing names, not the validity of the trope.

Solution: Stuff the good Power Blonde examples to Power Hair and then ditch Power Blonde.

Is Power Hair about a short-haired female politician or any shorted woman in a position of power?

Short, but still feminine hairstyle as in indicator the woman holds a position of power. Not simply any short haircut.

The ones that don't fit power hair and are good examples largely fit Boyish Short Hair.

What good examples? None of the good Power Blonde examples I've seen have Power Hair or Boyish Short Hair. Buffy The Vampire Slayer has long hair, Supergirl has long or longish hair, The Invisible Woman of Fantastic Four has long hair, Sgt. Tamara Calhoun from Wreck It Ralph (shown in the page image) has hair that crosses in front of the face, Rachel from Animorphs has long hair.

The page image is Boyish Short Hair. Just because it goes in front of her face doesn't mean it's not considered a short boyish cut on a woman with masculine traits.

Buffy is a play on the idea that The Cheerleader is blonde. Bad example of this trope. She's got blonde hair for another reason.

Supergirl just happens to be blonde. Superpowered women come in all hair colours in her world. She just happens to be blonde. It doesn't mean anything. Bad example.

Rachel from Animorphs almost never had her hair colour mentioned and females of multiple hair colours had similar powers. She just happens to be blonde. It doesn't mean anything. Bad example.

Another trope to bring up here is Windows To The Soul, discussed in the Common Eye Colours TRS thread. I sense it's trying to be a supertrope about significant eye colours but as-is has only 12 wicks and 10 inbounds.

For those who aren't interested in the current discussion, here's some work: check the Hime Cut wicks here and add context to ZCEs. This is really easy even if you don't know the series, as there's always going to be a description of the character being a miko/princess/yamato nadeshiko etc.

I'm not seeing the examples on Power Blonde that would also work for Power Hair.

I'm not seeing any links between characters on Power Blonde. Most of them have nothing in common other than being blonde.

edited 20th Dec '12 6:15:54 PM by shimaspawn

There was a reason Joss Whedon made Buffy blonde and it had nothing to do with being a cheerleader. As it says on the Buffy page on The Other Wiki, 'Whedon developed to invert the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie." Whedon wanted "to subvert that idea and create someone who was a hero." He explained, "The very first mission statement of the show was the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it."'