Men versus Women

This past weekend I finally got around to watching Match Point. I'd missed it in the theater, mainly because I was too cheap to pay the full price, something I find myself increasingly unwilling to do now that I can rent and play DVDs. The film was depressing, thought provoking, and at moments intense. But this isn't a place for that sort of review; plenty of others have written up the film's implications.

I'm more interested in the film's hair. I found it difficult to discern the difference between the two main male characters in the film, Chris and Tom (?). They both had short brown hair. The women, by contrast, one a blonde, one a brunette, were not hard to tell apart at all. I don't think it was merely the difference in hair color, however.

I am reminded of my teaching days at Ole Miss. There, I had the same problem. I could very easily tell my female students apart, but the guys, mostly short haired, mostly brunette, were difficult to keep straight at times.

Perhaps, it's that I'm a guy, but I have a hard time telling guys apart, at least, until I know them very well. This wasn't as much of a problem before I moved to the South. In California, things were easier, since people were different on other levels beyond their hair. And here in Georgia, I have not had too much of a problem either, for that same reason. But in Mississippi, and among the British upperclass, the hair is all the same, it seems, for men at least, and so they blend into one indistinguishable mass. I wonder if women have a hard time distinguishing women apart. For me, even beyond the hair, there are so many other parts to keep track of, that every woman is her own person. Lucky women.