Course:CSIS200/2024/Reclaiming Sexuality Through Wigs

Author’s Bio

Isabela Moraes grew up in an environment where conversations about sex were gendered—girls were expected to mature quickly but could not talk about sexuality, while boys talked about it openly. Frustrated by the gender biases that girls faced in her community, Isabela turned to the internet for answers, where she felt in love with reproductive health, female pleasure, romantic relationships, and sexual identity.

Isabela is now a Psychology undergraduate at the University of British Columbia with a minor in Critical Studies in Sexuality. Her coursework includes Psychology of Sexuality and Psychology of Sex Differences, and, of course, Critical Engagements in Sexuality Studies, which has deepened their knowledge of sexuality. Isabela aspires to pursue a career in sex therapy and use social media to advocate for women in her home culture and beyond.

In the following essay, Isabela challenges societal norms around women undergoing treatment for cancer, while discussing real stories about disability and sexuality. She analyzes how artifacts like wigs can both reinforce and challenge cultural narratives.

Term Definitions

Term	Definition
Chemotherapy	Drug treatment that kills cancer cells.
Feminist Disability Studies	Challenge societal ideals of what “normal” bodies should look like, and questions how societal systems marginalize disabled women.
Social conformity	Social influence that makes people change their attitudes and behaviours in order to fit in.
Infantilization	Treating a person who is not a child as if they are, includes perceiving the adult’s body as fragile and non-sexual.
Beauty Standards	Societal and cultural ideals that determine what is considered beautiful.
Alopecia	Hair loss.

Introduction

For some women undergoing chemotherapy, losing their hair can feel more than a physical change — it can symbolize a loss of identity, femininity, and sexuality. Using Feminist Disability Studies, which critiques the infantilization and forced asexuality of disabled women, we can examine how wigs act as possible tools of empowerment for women who currently face a social stigma due to changed appearance caused by cancer treatments. If wigs enable women to reclaim their sexuality, would improved sexuality impact subjective wellbeing and ultimately women’s treatment success? In other words, would women who wear wigs be happier and more likely to get better? Using interdisciplinary sources, this wiki page will try to answer this question while analyzing chronic disease, wigs, female empowerment, and societal beauty standards.

Hair loss and sexuality

One side effect of chemotherapy can be hair loss., which may impact individuals’ identity. However, chemo is a serious treatment for cancer and can save lives. Despite lack of hair, the individual in this picture used the bald head as a means of expression:“Last chemo today! Science saves”. Image from Wiki Commons, CC.

Humans have been using hair as a communication style for millennia. Through hair, one communicates about their culture, race, and status. Through hair, one also communicates their gender, sexuality, and level of social conformity. Individuals spend hundreds of dollars improving their self-image through hair dyes, extensions, or surgical hair implants according to what they perceive as beautiful or attractive. Therefore, for individuals experiencing hair loss, their own sense of self may be affected.

This may be particularly true for female cancer patients who experience hair loss due to chemotherapy. According to women residing in cancer rehabilitation centres in Denmark, hair loss while undergoing chemotherapy is associated with loss of perceived womanhood and attractiveness . In interviews, participants described feeling “neutered” and experiencing a “sense of vanished femininity” due to hair loss. For example, participant Kathy expressed a profound desire for her hair to grow back despite her husband appreciating her current appearance. Similarly, Doris compared baldness to asexual figures, such as children and nuns. These dialogues may represent some of the psychological effects of cancer-related body changes that impact patients' self-esteem, perceived attractiveness and sexual identity.

As part of their rehabilitation, the women in the study above participated in the workshop ‘Look Good — Feel Better’, which provided cosmetic bags and wigs. For women like Kathy, Doris, and many other patients in the residency, cosmetic bags and wigs played a role in restoring their sense of femininity. For Susan, another participant in the study, the workshop “really helped me regain a bit of my womanhood”. However, not all patients took part in the 'Look Good — Feel Better' workshop. One woman in the study did not feel the need to wear wigs or make-up, rejecting societal beauty standards. This perspective serves as a reminder that while some women perceive wigs as empowering, others may see them as reinforcing external expectations of beauty.

The video below is an additional illustration on the ‘Look Good — Feel Better’ workshop in America. Participants in the program seem to express positive sentiments regarding the workshop, whose goal is to improve cancer patients’ self-esteem through self care and cosmetics.

Sexuality through disability lenses

Women receiving chemotherapy may go through body and mind changes that may desexualize and infantilize them from the eyes of society. The woman pictured above wears a bandana to possibly hide some of the hair loss side induced by chemotherapy. She also wears loose, gender-neutral clothes that may also reflect lack feminine beauty standards. Image from Wiki Commons, CC.

Feminist disability studies challenge societal ideals of what “normal” bodies should look like, and questions how societal systems marginalize disabled women .

From a feminist disability studies perspective, chronic diseases such as cancer can be included in the social category of disability, which ultimately marginalizes its members alongside their gender and sexuality. According to Sami Schalk, professor of Gender and Disability Studies in the University of Wisconsin–Madison, disability is a social construct that “values certain bodyminds over others”, building the idea that impaired or diseased bodies are broken. Feminist disability theories therefore help understand how women with cancer may be desexualized and infantilized because of physical changes caused by cancer and its treatment. After all, chemotherapy may cause not only hair loss, but also scarring, weight fluctuations, paleness, and other physical changes that put women outside of beauty standards that include voluptuous hair, smooth skin, youthness and ”health“.

Feminist disability studies also argue that these limited beauty standards are held by ingrained societal systems such as capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy — societal pressures that, for women with cancer, may influence their perceived lack of control over their bodies. The more society equates physical health with sexual desirability, the more society reinforces ableist biases that may also explain why women with cancer are perceived as “less than” compared to women within the beauty standard of health. It becomes clear that women like Kathy and Doris from Hansen’s qualitative study are not only dealing with a very difficult illness, but also with the stigma that may deprive them from being seen or feeling like sexual beings.

This desexualization and stigma faced by women with cancer brings the need for tools that may help them reclaim their identity and sexuality. For many patients, including the participants in the “Look Good - Feel Better” workshop, wearing wigs may offer a way to cope with chemotherapy-induced hair loss .

Wigs

Long and lustrous hair is very popular on wigs, which may reflect society beauty standards linked to femininity. Wearing wigs like the one depicted in this image may help women with cancer reclaim their sexuality and feminine identity. Image from Wiki Commons, CC.

The role of wigs in the lives of women with cancer can be extensive and diverse, and one of those roles includes being a tool to reclaim women’s sexual identity while they face the physical changes caused by chemotherapy. For many women, their hair is more than a genetic trait, and losing hair during chemo affects their perception of femininity, health and sexual desirability

A medical article by Zannini et al. (2012) found that wigs can also be used as emotional tools to enhance confidence in public settings, self-expression, and empowerment. In their study - entitled ‘My wig has been my journey’s companion’ , wigs appeared to serve more than one purpose for women with cancer: For some women, wearing wigs created an appearance that “camouflaged” baldness, allowing them to present themselves in public without being attached to sick labels. Wearing bandanas were perceived as stronger markers of their illness so were not equated to wigs in terms of functionality, especially according to younger women in the study. In addition to wearing wigs to go outside without fear of judgement by others, patients in Zaninni’s study also wore wigs for themselves. The conclusion was that “wearing a wig all day was intended to be a way to maintain a sense of identity in spite of the changes caused by cancer therapy”. In other words, wigs were associated with self-confidence and healing in the face of illness! Some women even seemed to see the wig as a “companion” or emotional support, creating a bond that lasted even after the regrowth of their natural hair. From a tool that enables patients to blend in with others while grocery shopping to personal empowerment accessories, wigs appear to be a way found by some women to resist the negative effects of hair loss during cancer treatments.

Playing with different wigs may be a source of connection with joy and may impact one’s perceived sexuality. Dressing up as a “hot nurse” is a common example of women expressing their sexuality while having fun with wigs. Image from Wiki Commons, CC.

How else may women with cancer empower themselves through the use of wigs? Some examples may be found in autobiographies of patients who survived cancer and shared stories about their intimacy with the disease, its progress, and personal acts of resilience. The autobiography by Neelam Kumar To Cancer, with love: My journey of Joy, describes a person battle with cancer and hair loss, in which the narrator would transform potentially harmful situations into ones of empowerment through play and joy. In one of those instances, Kumar decides to shop for wigs with a fashionista friend, turning a moment of vulnerability caused by hair loss into one of humor and connection. She highlights how playing with wigs became a way to regain control of situations and connect with others during an otherwise isolating time. That is, by choosing wigs that matched her personality and moods, Kumar used them as props to face different relationships and redefine her femininity, in the same way that the women from Zannini’s study used the wig as a tool for “normalcy“ in the face of illness.

Other sexual minority groups may use joy and play to resist stereotypes and stigma in order to gain control of situations that otherwise would feel oppressive for their groups. For example, the Cabbagetown Group League, founded in 1977 by members of Toronto’s gay liberation movement, used softball as a platform to advocate for gay rights. According to Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives, the Cabbagetown Group League created a space where individuals could express their true sexuality, form connections, build community and resist prejudice — all while playing a sport. For the Cabbagetown Group League, playing softball and winning tournaments as a gay community became a tool for gaining control and spreading joy. Both Kumar’s autobiography and the Cabbagetown Group League demonstrate how the act of “play” (whether through sports or wigs dress-up) can be used by sexual minority groups to resist oppression. Ultimately, playing seems to provide human connection, agency and enhances group and individual wellbeing.

Could improved wellbeing be associated with the treatment success of cancer? According to a 2011 Health Psychology study, women with higher social well-being scores within the first year of diagnosis had significantly lower risks of breast cancer mortality and recurrence. In other words, women who felt socially connected and had higher subjective quality of life were less likely to die from breast cancer or have their illness return in the future. If wigs help women to engage socially and to view themselves more positively, they may also be helping their prognosis (ie course of the illness).

Feminine beauty standards

Women with alopecia advocating about their condition with the goal of spreading awareness and challenging social norms. Why would the woman above need to wear a wig when speaking in public? Examples like her may help empower others with the same or similar conditions. Image from Wiki Commons, CC.

While wigs can help empower women to reclaim their sexuality and identity, they can also reinforce oppressive beauty standards that see feminine long hair as the norm. Schalk (2021) critiques how societal ideals of beauty stem from patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism. From a feminist disability perspective, it is important to consider if wigs are also a symbol of systems that marginalized disabled women. The pressure to wear wigs to conform to beauty standards may help stigmatize bodies that choose not to conform with such ideals. One example are women with cancer- induced hair loss who do not wear wigs because they feel uncomfortable, hot, or they simply wish to make a personal choice instead of conforming their appearance with societal norms. As Wendell (1996) argues, true empowerment lies in challenging beauty norms rather than conforming to them.

Another example are women with alopecia. Alopecia means simply “hair loss”, yet alopecia areata or totalis refers to an autoimmune condition that attacks hair follicles, leading to loss of body hair and permanent baldness. For women with alopecia, societal beauty standards around hair may also feel oppressive. Yet, some women with alopecia find empowerment by taking off their wigs and challenging hair beauty standards.

The photograph series called Unfading by Christoph Soeder is mainly composed of portraits of women with alopecia on colourful backgrounds, revealing bald or semi-bald heads and eyebrows. The series of portraits was done after Soeder asked one of the models to remove their wig — a request that would become essential to his project. For some models, being photographed bald meant confronting their condition openly and thus choosing a path of self-acceptance. Their stories show that empowerment can happen through rejecting wigs entirely and accepting their bald selves.

Conclusion

Wigs may be powerful tools that help women with cancer to reclaim their sexuality. Feminist disability studies help explain how wigs may both challenge and reinforce ableist stereotypes that desexualize women undergoing chemotherapy. Wigs can serve as a form of emotional comfort, femininity, and play. Wigs can also represent the need for women to conform to societal beauty standards by hiding their true condition and a path to self-acceptance. As the author of this wiki page, I believe that it is up to the individual and their history to choose whether to wear wigs or not, independently of health status.