Chop, a hunk of hair. The scissors flashed as I grabbed heavy handfuls and cut it down to the scalp. My then partner, the one who swore she wouldn’t love me if I cut my hair, drank in the next room. Another flash, another waterfall of hair. “Fat women should have long hair,” she’d said. “Wear makeup, try to look pretty.” I gripped the scissors so hard they left imprints in my skin. “Fat women should be femmes,” she’d said. But I’m not a woman. And I stared in the mirror and cut off my hair and slowly revealed myself.
Finnian Burnett lives in British Columbia where they watch a lot of Star Trek and take their cat for walks in a stroller. Find Finnian at www.finnburnett.com and on Twitter @FinnianBurnett.