I've been reading a lot of discourse lately on River Ward's hair (or lack thereof) and the fact that it was a missed opportunity by the devs in terms of Native American/Indigenous representation, and also the fact that the whole fandom should have seen this man with the long luxurious hair that he deserves as might be culturally appropriate and as the Creator intended... Now, y'all ain't wrong, however, allow me, if you will, to make a counterpoint.
I don't want to overly credit CDPR seeing as they still dropped the ball with this man's story line as far as I'm concerned, but these are devs that are incredibly fucking detail oriented. Specifically with environmental story telling and world building. There are literally hundreds of interconnected shards and comp messages that tie into each other and other things in this game. There are tons of easter eggs and tiny details that flesh out this world. I've read whole ass essays about Johnny, the VDBs, and so many other things that are well thought out of in this game. Is anyone talking about the residents of Dogtown, who don't have access to washing machines, that are repurposing cement mixers from the abandoned construction around them to wash their clothes?! (No, just me?) What I'm getting at with saying all this is that a lot of stuff in the this game is very intentional, including the character designs. Including River's.
When was the last time you saw a male police officer with long hair?
You're probably struggling to come up with a real world example, and there's a reason for that. Law enforcement agencies and military, have uniform and dress code requirements which extend to personal grooming. Men have to keep their hair short. Women, if their hair is long, it needs to be kept within a certain length, and if they are in uniform it is typically pinned back in some fashion. Body adornments - such as piercings, tattoos, nails - need to be professional and cannot interfere with the use of equipment or your job duties. (Should you get into any kind of altercation or an emergency situation, the less someone can grab of you, the fewer things you have to worry about getting caught on stuff or are in your way, the better.) All of these uniform/dress requirements are for professional standards, practical reasons, and because law enforcement and the military are core pillars of the colonial and capitalist systems that we all live under and uniformity is a way to enforce compliance.
(There are exceptions to these dress codes in certain cases, but they are not the norm. Tribal law enforcement is an entirely separate thing, which probably has a more culturally attuned dress code, but last I checked Night City, while an independent municipality, is not a sovereign tribal nation.)
So, yes, while it is disappointing that we never got to see River with long hair in the game, it is representative of real life. And representative of the real experiences that many Native American and Indigenous Peoples have to face when making the decision to participate in these institutions for survival and various other reasons. Which might mean having to cut your hair off - even though it's one of the few connections you still have to your culture - because for a character with a sense of morals and justice, who witnessed the murder of his parents, who grew up an orphan, who grew up poor systemically exploited, and who has to shoulder the burden of generational trauma due to the genocide of his people, it might mean having to make hard choices about what you want to do with your life. Because even if it's not the way you want to live, as it stands, we're all forced into participating in colonial capital systems in order to survive. What is going to let you sleep better at night when you have limited paths to any kind of financial stability? Do you join a street gang or do you join the gang with the mission statement? To serve and protect.
I don't think River's decision to become a cop was something he took lightly and it still came at a cost. One of those things potentially being: his hair.
Anyway, just food for thought and something to chew on. Not trying to ruin the parade. Please, keep the long hair River fan art coming because that shit is feeding my soul. And, even though I don't mod, maybe someday, someday, some modder will figure out how to make it happen.
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