Chicago Tribune columnist Heidi Stevens used her column Tuesday to respond, again, to reader complaints about how her hair looks in her staff photo. Here’s the gist: Stop it.
The drama has mostly died down, but I still get a handful of comments each week — usually in the form of tweets or emails — suggesting I’d be prettier if I would just do something with my hair.
To those readers, particularly the one who goes to the trouble of removing my offending photo each week, I say this:
I don’t need to be prettier.
That is not in my job description.
I need to tell the truth. I need to represent my sources fairly and accurately when I quote them and describe them. I need to write stories and columns that people want to read.
I need to meet my deadlines.
I don’t need to get an easy care hairdo.
Stevens writes that, in addition to the emails and tweets about her hair, she gets a handwritten note each week, too, with her mugshot cut out (or ripped out, maybe. Wow.)
Sorry folks, @HeidiStevens13 is not getting a new column photo http://t.co/4gsL5BmsWn pic.twitter.com/LnF0mBU5yZ
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) June 9, 2015
In a piece from March, Stevens wrote about her hair hate mail, and she spoke with a few women in journalism to see if they’d gotten similar pushback on their hair. They had.
I couldn’t find any male writers with hair stories, though Christopher Borrelli said readers often tell him to trade in his Red Sox ball cap for a Cubs hat.
Is this really where we’re stuck as a culture? At a place where we drown out women’s voices with critiques of their hair?
