Hang Tight, America: The Redcoats Are Coming | Shag Haircuts Unite

Debbie Harry ‘Muse’ by Lance Vaughn

Rule number one of the little bit of grunge, a little rock, rigorously disheveled shag haircut is that the woman should be seriously rebellious and not faking it when choosing to get shaggy. Shags are not for imposters and poll readers. Rather, the shag haircut is for leaders like 70s’s women Jane Fonda and Debbie Harry, who are activists to the core decades later.

‘Shag’ is a 16th-century word, possibly from an Old English term for “rough, matted hair or wool. Men primarily, but some women also, have adopted their own definition of ‘shag’ and it has a strongly sexual connotation, as in “S(he) is a great shag.” There’s typically a ‘but’ that follows, as in “She’s a great shag but a total airhead.”

Many people outside the UK learned ‘shag’, thanks to the hit 1999 comedy film ‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me’ starring Mike Myers. The title is a play on the James Bond film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977).

Shags are generally considered to be nonconforming, sexy haircuts, willfully embraced by their owners. Besides Fonda and Harry, the shaggy bob is also tagged to Meg Ryan and more recently Taylor Swift and Alexa Chung. Vogue Italia breaks down all the shag haircut details and shares celebs with their shags.

Jane Fonda, Still Flexing Shag Muscle

The return of shags — now a year-old trend in the US — gets new cred with female resistance. We all know that American women Democrats, Independents and increasingly, educated Republican women are exercising serious shag credentials.

Jane Fonda looked glorious in her bright red coat and shag hairdo, being arrested at her regular Friday climate activism protest in Washington DC. When I saw Jane’s blazing red photo, as she was hauled off to jail, I couldn’t help thinking of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her Max Mara red coat. These images of strong American women wearing read coats give entirely new meaning to the American revolutionary phrase ‘The Redcoats are coming!”

After spending a night in jail for her November 1 arrest, Fonda continues to march on ‘Fire Drill Fridays’ but got out of the way on November 8, when the DC police arrived. The DC judge who sent Jane to jail for a one night stay on November 1 warned Fonda that after so many arrests, her next jail sentence would require an extended stay.

New York Times writer Cara Buckley picks up the story of Jane’s night in jail with Jane Fonda at 81, Proudly Protesting and Going to Jail.

Jane Fonda, center, being arrested on Friday along with other activists like Jodie Evans, right. The actress spent the night in jail.Credit...Jared Soares for The New York Times

Back in the day Fonda’s iconic ‘Klute’ hairstyle and her solidarity fist up to the camera became symbolic of anti-war activism. That activism hasn’t died.

“You see this coat? I needed something red and I went out and found this coat on sale. This is the last article of clothing that I will ever buy,"

Jane is flexing her red coat shag muscle even higher with a new announcement sending a chill through the fashion industry. Publicly nailing her commitment to climate change in words that no one can ignore, Fonda has declared that the red coat she is wearing every weekend is the last article of clothing that she will ever buy.

Searching Google, I note that Vanessa Friedman wrote ‘The Red Coats Are Coming’ on November 13, 2019. In fact, Friedman also references Pelosi’s red coat, saying metaphorically “forget power shoulders, it’s all about the red coat.”

The coat writes, Friedman, sends a message: “Warning! Our house is on fire! Urgent action is needed! It also provides warmth and some comfort during Ms. Fonda’s time in jail. It has become so immediately recognizable that it was its own Halloween costume.”

A Twitter user suggests that Fonda’s red coat should move to the Smithsonian Museum, when she’s finished with it. Common sense associated with this great idea suggests that the pink pussy hat from the first Women’s March, the day after Trump’s 2017 inauguration, is already at the Smithsonian, as it’s at the V&A in London.

On Friday, Smithsonian Magazine struck a timely note — and it appears a pussy hat is included in the lineup — with a new article Smithsonian Elevates the Frequently Ignored Histories of Women.

Quite simply, American women are firing on all cylinders, and boomer women proudly join the charge, symbolically led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, quarterbacking the Trump impeachment proceeding.