I don't really have a way of phrasing this without sounding overly sensitive and I KNOW the response to this, if I got any at all, would largely be "it's not that deep/it's just a joke" but I'm really just entirely over "I'm bald" being the go to funny out-of-the-box answer for tumblr polls.
In my understanding, the trend originated with a poll about hairstyles (either color or length idr), so including the answer "bald" was, you know, actually a sensible move; and I KNOW people will say it was Only Funny Because It Was Attached To The Nuance Answer and Bald/Nuance Was Just Funny Because Uuh No Particular Reason. If you think this, do yourself a favor and ask yourself if, just maybe, your social circles and the media you've consumed in your life might've largely established baldness as a pathetic/sad/funny trait and if this circumstance plays a role in your thinking that the poll trend is funny. Would you honestly think it was just as funny if it had been "Brunette/Nuance"?
Before anyone tries to misconstrue this, I'm not arguing that being bald is an "oppressed feature" or anything of the sort (I hate having to include this but I know how people on here love to misconstrue things), but as a site that claims to be so body positive I just find it strange that we've just agreed that "I'm bald" is nothing but a really funny punch line? I personally always knew I'd lose my hair before I'm 30 because I knew what my grandfathers looked like and and I knew when they lost their hair. It's something I've personally made peace with, even if it's not something I would've freely chosen, it's not something I have any control over. Having said that, it really does not feel all that nice when every other poll I see on this site thinks it necessary to include "I'm bald" as the joke/nuance answer. It is, at the end of the day, a physical attribute that I would argue MOST people didn't freely choose, and there are multiple involuntary reasons why people may go bald, including genetics and illness, neither of which I personally think are really things to make fun of someone for.
This isn't the most eloquent post and I don't expect many people to read it, I'm mostly just venting. I just really don't understand how we can all (hopefully) understand that bald jokes such as those in literally every ep of Seinfeld are mean spirited, yet using "I'm bald" as a stand-in nonsense answer that no one in Our Ingroup would ever unironically have to pick is alright. Because at the end of the day, I do think it's about many pollmakers subconsciously assuming that no one in their ingroup (define this how you will) could be actually bald, because being bald is for sad middle aged men, and sad middle aged men (and those you simply perceive as such) are not part of the ingroup ever. And yes, body positivity HAS TO include traits you associate with groups you don't think you have to care about, because a) those traits all exist in every single group of people, b) assigning value to physical traits is bullshit, and c) if you are only showing up for bodies you find desireable or the bodies of people you find relatable, then you aren't being body positive, period. I'm not saying you need to "like" baldness in whichever way you want to interpret this, that's not the conversation I'm having right now. I am asking you to try to view baldness as a neutral trait, not as one that's just inherently funny or shameful.
