Charge

Abstract

AbstractA ponytail icon does not create consensus, but allows its wearers a multitude of symbolic options with which to join and recreate social life. Materiality is critical to this process as it makes moral and mythical codes tangible; however, although a ponytail carries shared meanings, it is not felt alike by all who wear it, nor understood in the same way in all contexts. Symbolic codes operate and intersect to make the ponytail publicly meaningful and, at the same time, to allow different points of view. Ponytailed women express individuality in deeply cultural and aesthetically tangible ways. Not equally charged at all times, the ponytail’s iconic power is strongest when it materializes multiple symbolic layers—to be revealed as a total social phenomenon. Therefore, this book highlights our ability to adapt to diverse situations and our need for a multidimensional tactic to grasp the material meanings of the ponytail.