Sinister: Mullet haircuts

[Heather Marie Propes]

On Tue, 24 Nov 1998, clint stauffer wrote:

> What is a mullet haircut?
> I asked myself that very same question after reading John's message, so I
> investigated (http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/6906/).  It appears a
> mullet haircut is what I've always know to be referred to as "hockey hair" or a
> "butt-rocker" haircut.  A good tie-in with the recent dicussions of American
> trailer parks.  My question is the following:  Does listening to country music,
> watching pro wrestling, and driving Camaros lead one to get a mullet haircut,
> or is it that people with mullet haircuts are naturally draw to these
> pursuits?  

Hiya Clint, you yank! You forgot John Cougar Mellencamp, Nascar racing,
and Coors light! Yes, us Americans really do have a culture!

But seriously, thanks to whoever did this site, for addressing one of the
biggest fashion mysteries I have ever known, namely, why do people wear
these stupid haircuts? I, myself, had a friend who was studying to be an
architect! And he had a mullet! Now would you let this man design your
house? He's probably do mullet bushes or something. 

And yet, the whole subject of mullets, white trash, and bad taste in
general brings a larger problem to the surface for me, that is, who is in
charge of defining bad taste? I ask this as someone who was indoctrinated
into the study of art history during its flirtation with
"poststructuralism," when you were taught to feel guilty if you asserted
that you actually liked a Flemish painting better than a work by an
untaught American folk artist, or a work depicting dogs playing pool on a
piece of velvet (excuse the kitschy, trendy examples) because, after all,
the divisions between "high" and "low" culture, have supposedly been
obscured in the postmodern era. And yet, when you dare to assert that
something reveals bad taste, you get a whole host of people calling you a
snob and suddenly you don't feel so liberal anymore. This is a true
dilemma for me, because I like to think of myself as a liberal and a
fairly open, cosmopolitan person. Yet, I believe that there are certain
distinctions. How can these be justified? How can you not sound like a
snob? 

BTW - did David Bowie have an orange mullet?

Ciao,

Heather

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