The Cagney and Lacey Factor

There have been a number of articles lately focusing on the fashion sensibilities of the women of the new administration, in particular their choice of haircut. It seems that eight of President Obama's female employees; Cristina Romer, Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebelius, Hillary Clinton, Desiree Rogers, Valerie Jarrett, Lisa Jackson, Cassandra Butts, and Lisa Jackson, have chosen short-cropped hair.

Now there are a lot of reasons to have short hair it’s, professional looking, easier to dye, frames the face and or you were alive during the 1976 Olympics and never got over the “Hamill Camel” (a now classic ice skating maneuver) and its creator Dorothy Hamill. Though the reasons may be legion, the choice, I feel, can most be defined by what I call, “The Cagney and Lacey” factor. I am referring, of course, to the much-loved 1980s procedural cop drama and its two smart, female characters who’s lives and careers centered around combating crime in “Thriller” era New York City.

The 14-time Emmy award winning show factors heavily, as Carl Jung put it, “in the reservoir of the experiences of our species” and was the “Police, Sex and the City” of it’s time. The characters of, Christine Cagney, a single, career-minded, tough, witty, working-class woman and Mary Beth Lacey, a married, working mother balancing career, sex and family, have become archetypes, to a generation, of strong minded independent women.

It’s really no wonder. The show, unique in its time for it’s complexity and format, took on controversial issues of the day like, AIDS, date rape, cocaine addiction, racism, and spousal abuse. The real “breakout” element in this “Spiritus Mundi” was that; though solving crimes was part of the series equation, the real emphasis was on exploring the working and personal lives of the two women.

The subject matter of the show was matched with an equally strong visual iconography. Both women were pretty but of “a certain age” that projected ‘maturity of mind”, transcending the merely physical. Their clothes and hair were “a la mode” working-class, both sporting short-sheared-coifs that helped bind them together as well as defend them from their male dominated profession.

This last element, the “hairstyle”, was key. A self-imposed gauntlet; the removal of one of the most obvious tenants of female sexuality, thrown down in a gesture of self-flagellation, to prove their worth and to show diminishment could be transcendent and that through vulnerability they could become even stronger and more complete paragons of womanhood and feminine virtue. Such an open display of power and confidence could not be help but intoxicate and enthrall the show’s viewers. It did.

Though the series ended in 1988, “Cagney and Lacey” continues to inform and influence a generation and has become “the” touchstone of the professional woman’s hair-dressing choices.

Below is our "Fun Poll" please rate the following as more “Cagney” or “Lacey”:

1) Cristina Romer 2)Janet Napolitano 3)Kathleen Sebelius 4)Hillary Clinton 5)Desiree Rogers 6)Valerie Jarrett 7)Lisa Jackson 8)Cassandra Butts 9)Lisa Jackson

Bonus:
Rachel Maddows