Sociological Images accuses Facebook of sexism and ethnocentricsm for using a "white and male" image as its default avatar to represent a typical user, while opting for "orange avatars of both sexes" to represent its "global connection" capabilities.

So why does this shadowy male figure look just like me?

Sociological Images writes:

So when Facebook wants to represent global humanity, the avatars are orange and of mixed sex; when Facebook is charged with representing an individual, the avatar is white and male. This is not random or accidental. Globally, as Facebook, ironically, reminds us, people are not “white.” Representing people in this way centers men, Western countries, and whiteness (because there are non-white people in Western countries, too) and marginalizes women, non-Western countries, and non-whites (though one might argue that at least ALL of the avatars aren’t white and male).

What Sociological Images fails to note is that the Facebook avatar is only as exclusively "white" as a silhouette artist's subject is exclusively black (which is to say, not at all). Similarly, the avatar is only as exclusively "male" as its haircut—short hair with a funny cowlick. Nope, can't be a woman!:

All woman.

Facebook's "global" avatars don't represent users of both sexes—they represent users with both long and short hair. As far as a vague shadow drawing of human can ever have a gender, the avatars looks pretty gender-neutral to me. I identify more with the short-haired "dude" than the more substantially-coiffed orange "lady." It seems to me that the argument for a more "female" avatar is actually just an argument that the androgyn get a girlier haircut.

Perhaps Sociological Images should be asking why Facebook is so sexist and racist, but not sufficiently heteronormative? Why, Facebook, is your default avatar so vaguely androgynous for all users—male, female, gay, straight, cisgendered and trans? Shouldn't real men be able to choose a manlier avatar (the chin could be better-defined), and women one with a less queer-looking haircut?

I am outraged.

The United Arab Emirates has launched a campaign to raise awareness among girls of "the dangers of appearing as men," and "emphasizing the virtues of being female." The campaign is titled "Pardon me, I'm a girl."

Why does the UAE need to encourage girls to be girls? Well, "Locals attest to a growing trend of Emirati girls who cut their hair short, dress and talk like men."

It doesn't sound to me like these girls want to be like men—it sounds like they want to be like American girls. But experts remain confused:

Muna Al-Bahar, senior executive adviser of the social program at the Emirates Foundation, which is helping finance research on this topic, said she has seen this quite often among her female university students.

"Some of the girls I taught in my classes were like this; they behaved like boys but they denied they were like boys," she said.

"From a brief discussion and reading the proposal for the research, I get the sense they see it as gender identity confusion, because after they finish school, these girls get married, have kids and settle down," Al-Bahar said.

"Sometimes it's a gender identity crisis, and maybe they feel that if they're like boys they will be more powerful," she told The Media Line.

Since research is still in its initial stages it is difficult to pinpoint the reason for this growing trend of female cross dressing in the UAE.

Al-Bahar said it could be a matter of hormonal imbalance, a psychological problem or even just a matter of peer pressure that will vanish by itself when the girls graduate and start a new life elsewhere.

Or, cutting your hair, wearing pants, and speaking out is not, in fact, a "problem," and doesn't have anything to do with a desire to get married and have kids. Somehow, American women manage to balance their short hair and their childrearing at the same time, while consuming hamburgers and drinking Coca Cola soft drinks. Join us!

Dr. Aline Zoldbrod, sex therapist, says, “If you cut your hair you might be making a statement that says, ‘I don’t want to be seen as a sex object.'"

Matt Titus, published author ( . . . of a book titled “Why Hasn’t He Called?”) says, “Men love long hair; the touch and the smell stimulates our senses. . . . The three physical things that attract a man are a great body, beautiful long hair or great lips. So cutting off one third of your beacons of attraction doesn’t increase your chances of having Mr. Right approach you. It’s like sending a nonverbal message that you’re not interested in sex.”

So that's why he hasn't called. Short-haired Jezebel Maria respectfully disagrees, and offers up one pro for chopping it off: "One good part of having short hair? It weeds out the slimy creeps," she writes.

Ha ha, no, unfortunately, there are slimy creeps for every hairstyle. Speaking as a fellow short-haired lady (some characterize it as the "Farrow"; I prefer the term "Napolitano"), shorter hair hasn't lessened the number of weirdos propositioning me in poorly lit bars. For every Matt Tisus in the world, there is a stranger lurking just outside a short-haired woman's field of vision, leering at the exposed flesh of her neck.

Also, I once found a boy I was dating searching for "short hair lesbian porn" on his dorm room computer. So, you know, some people are a little too into it.

Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Defense