How I Learned to Blowdry My Hair at 40

And Other Lessons from Growing Out My Locks in Middle Age

In March 2020, I stopped cutting my hair. Like many, I wasn’t about to risk a COVID infection for a trip to Floyd’s barbershop. Unlike many, however, I have yet to return to the barbershop chair. I am now 41, my hair falls halfway down my back, and I have almost no clue what to do with it.

I never intended to go four years without a haircut. I teach fourth grade. During year one of the pandemic, in the name of social distancing, our school halved class sizes and moved …

by Nick Fuller Googins | June 3, 2024

When Victorian Newspapers Put Gender-Bending on Trial

1870s Press Covered an Otherwise Trivial Case as Breathlessly—and Dangerously—as Today’s Trans Stories

by Rory Buccheri | March 4, 2024

In 1870, Ernest Fanny Boulton and Frederick Stella Park were arrested in London. Their crime? Presenting as women outside their theatrical act.

Fanny and Stella had appeared in newspapers before, known …

Where Asian Americans Need Affirmative Action

Our Focus on University Admissions Obscures the ‘Bamboo Ceiling’ in the Workplace

by Jennifer Lee | September 14, 2023

Zócalo is celebrating its 20th birthday this year! As part of the festivities, we’re publishing reflections and responses that revisit and reimagine some of …

Why Is the Latinx Debate So Fierce?

Gender, Language, and Identity Are Complicated. But Inclusivity Doesn’t Have to Be

by Sebastian Ferrada | February 16, 2023

In 2018, I was interviewed for Univision’s morning talk show ¡Despierta América! (Wake up, America!) to discuss the meaning of the identity label Latinx. I was nervous because I had …

Who Should Put a Ring on It?

A Modest Proposal for Rethinking ‘Will You Marry Me?’—And What True Egalitarianism Might Look Like

by Amanda Jayne Miller | February 13, 2023

Over 20 years ago, I covered my face with my hands and shyly told my (now) husband, “I’m moving away for graduate school and I’d love you to go with …

The Female Cooks Who Shaped French Cuisine

A New Generation of Chefs Is Melding the Domestic and Professional—And Moving Toward Equality in the Restaurant Kitchen

by Rachel E. Black | October 13, 2021

As I perch on a stool in her kitchen in Lyon, I think about what makes Sonia Ezgulian’s cooking so compelling. Ezgulian, who is also a journalist, is well known …

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