ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Celine Dion lets her son Rene Charles go short

Updated on July 27, 2011

Anyone who’s seen pictures of Rene Charles until recently would probably have mistaken him for a girl. His hair was well past his shoulders and halfway down is back. He didn’t want his hair cut and so Celine Dion took the “if you don’t want your hair cut then we won’t cut it” approach. At such a young age, hair length is often the only thing that clearly separates girls from boys. Especially since it’s normal for girls to wear boyish clothes (though not the other way round unfortunately).

With Rene Charles, though it was just left to grow without shape. It looked unkempt and had no shape or style which is what prompted so many people to say “Rene Charles badly needs a haircut”. Well that’s over now. His hair is now a typical boyish short and that must have been quite a loss for him.

Creative Commons License 3.0 source:http://picasaweb.google.com/microscopemd/CoversDeCD#
Creative Commons License 3.0 source:http://picasaweb.google.com/microscopemd/CoversDeCD# | Source

But it wasn’t a change of heart that made Rene Charles change his mind about not wanting a haircut. It was his school that forbids boys to have long hair. In an interview, Celine Dion said that she left her son to decide between staying at his school and keeping his long hair. But he could not have both.

Cutting off a whole lifetime worth of hair growth is a big step for anyone no matter how good the reason behind it. But to cut your hair short just because of school regulations has got to be the worst reason imaginable. It reeks of gender discrimination, conformity, pointless homophobia and outright stupidity. Now at least Rene Charles was given the choice by his mom. Many parents just cut their boy's hair whether he likes it or not. But still I don’t approve of it. Changing schools is also a huge deal for a young kid. It’s like an adult dropping everything, moving to another country and starting all over from scratch with a new social life and new job. Putting a young boy in the position to have to decide between changing schools and cutting off his long hair is still very harsh. No wonder boys don’t perform as well as girls in school if they’re under so much more pressure just to be accepted. In fact, I think the boys doing less well in school has nothing to do with lacking role models as everyone keeps suggesting but that is another topic.

I don't see what's the obsession with boys hair length anyway. It's amazing how much controversy it provokes. Just look at some of the parenting forums and see how strongly people feel about boys with long hair. Some people really think their son will turn gay if he's allowed to have long hair! Can you believe it? I just feel sorry for the poor kids who grow up with such parents and, sadly there is a lot of this. Is it any wonder girls do better in school? Others think it's doing boys a favor to forcefully cut their hair. They hide behind silly arguments that make no sense. For example many people seem to think that boys with long hair are undisciplined which is ridiculous since anyone who's ever had long hair (maybe there's the problem) knows it takes a hell of a lot more discipline and effort to handle than short hair. It's all just cover up for an innate fear of anything that might be thought of as feminine in boys. That's really what it boils down to. Perhaps, if Celine Dion is going to make Rene Charles decide between his hair and his school, then she should tell him why he has to make that choice. Maybe that would give him a chance to take a proper position in this ridiculous gender conformity game.

I think parents should not encourage this kind of thing from schools. Of course, if Rene Charles prefers to go to that school than keep his hair, then let him. But parents should not let that go without making an appropriately big fuss about it - to the school of course. He needs to know that an injustice is being done to him. Or perhaps that's taking a few too many chances...

Please tell me what you think.

What do you think about boys with long hair?

See results
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)