Blood Over Bright Haven

Hair is a motif connected to The Inevitability of Prejudice Under Systemic Oppression; both Sciona and Thomil use their hair to signal their relationship to the conformity Tiranish society demands. Sciona and Thomil both have short hair; Sciona keeps her hair short to look more masculine, in the hopes that it will make her coworkers respect her, while Thomil keeps his hair short to match the norms expected of “civilized” Kwen men. In both cases, their personal preferences do not matter; rather, their appearance is a tool to urge others to treat them without prejudice.

The novel also shows how oppression exploits small differences to other marginalized groups. Although there is no explicit religious reason for it, Tiranish men keep their hair short to claim superiority and visual difference over Kwen men, who traditionally have long hair. Likewise, since Kwen people typically have red hair, this trait becomes demeaning shorthand for their ethnicity and is used to exclude and abuse them. Kwen people try to conform to resist dehumanization, but the very act of assimilating in this way dehumanizes them all over again.