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Cutting off from political life: Pablo Iglesias' new look causes Twitter sensation
14/05/2021
FORMER deputy president Pablo Iglesias' radical new look could be a sign of his wanting to cut off – literally – from his life up to now and forge ahead with a new rôle, according to an acclaimed expert in non-verbal communication.
Having been internationally recognisable by the ponytail he has worn since his teens, Iglesias has now lopped it off, giving him a completely new image to the one he has shown to the world for the best part of a quarter of a century.
Iglesias, 42, recently dropped out of politics altogether – he had made the very risky decision to switch his position as national government second-in-command and founder of the party which had gone from a small activist group meeting in a garage in Madrid seven years ago to the coalition partners in Spanish Parliament for that of head candidate for said party in the Greater Madrid regional elections.
His gamble did not pay off: Iglesias' left-wing party Unidas Podemos did not achieve the victory it had hoped for, and a coalition deal with other leftist outfits in the region would not have been enough to prevent right-wing PP leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso from holding onto her power and leadership.
As a result, Unidas Podemos was just a small part of the Madrid regional opposition – with just seven seats out of the required majority of 69 - and, taking political responsibility for its lack of success, Pablo Iglesias gave up his seat and ended his career.
A week later, Iglesias appeared with his hair short.
His only variation on the ponytail since the end of the last century was when he rolled it into a bun to prevent his two-year-old twin boys and his baby daughter from pulling it.
Specialist in non-verbal communication José Luis Martín Ovejero says: “In general, getting a very different hairstyle comes from a very personal desire to break free from the past.
“It's like shouting out to the world: 'If you think I look different, it's because I'm not the same person any more, I'm someone new from now on.”
Given how much of his life Iglesias has worn his hair long and in a ponytail, Martín Ovejero says cutting it off is 'a very radical change'.
“The ponytail, either loose or in a bun, formed a major part of his 'brand' as a person; in fact, if we asked people in the street to name just one feature about Pablo Iglesias, the ponytail would be mentioned straight away.
“So he's completely broken off from his 'personal brand'.”
Martín Ovejero says the long hair acted as a kind of symbol of Pablo Iglesias in his early days of what was then known as Podemos – before it joined forces with United Left, or Izquierda Unida, to become Unidas Podemos – to show he and his team were a long way apart from 'old politics', at a time when government in Spain and practically every region and local council was a straight contest between the 'big two', the right-wing PP and left-wing socialists, or PSOE.
Iglesias had been one of the founder members of the 15-M protest movement, named as such after their first-ever sit-in in the centre of Madrid on May 15, clamouring against the then PP government's high taxes, low unemployment and constant home repossessions after the ordinary citizen was forced to 'make sacrifices' to refund a €100 million EU bailout for the country's banks.
“Ever since the 15-M movement, Iglesias presented himself as someone who did not belong to the 'political caste' [an expression first coined by Iglesias himself to describe the 'establishment' of the PP and PSOE] and that his public image was vastly different. He showed himself as a person who had burst onto the scene to transform the political past we all knew so well and to change its present, too, replacing it with his ideal of the future.
“The haircut is, in some way, a way of renouncing all those dreams he brought with him.”
Image is 'fundamental' in politics, says Martín Ovejero.
“It's been proven scientifically that we form an impression of a person within the first 10 seconds of meeting or seeing them, and our image is a crucial way of telling those watching us that we belong to a given social group, or that we do not belong to another – of saying, in Iglesias' case, that he did not belong to those politicians you're used to seeing in a shirt and tie.
“But I started seeing what I expected would be a drastic change months ago. Already, when he started wearing his ponytail in a bun because, as he said, his children kept pulling his hair, it was the start of a transition. He had already started wearing a suit jacket and tie, and the bun was a way of making his hair look less long.”
Iglesias has reportedly already said his post-political life will probably involve his returning to his old job as university tutor, or perhaps critical journalism, or a combination of both, but Martín Ovejero believes he will never completely shed his old self, ponytail or no ponytail.
“Except for those who only discover who he is from about now, Pablo Iglesias will always be Pablo Iglesias; it's going to be very difficult for him to change people's opinions about him, good ones or bad, with a simple haircut,” Martín Ovejero argues.
It did not take long for the ex-MEP's hairdo to go viral: Within hours of the photograph by Dani Gago appearing in numerous media sources, it had been retweeted 16,000 times, and memes started to appear by the dozen.
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FORMER deputy president Pablo Iglesias' radical new look could be a sign of his wanting to cut off – literally – from his life up to now and forge ahead with a new rôle, according to an acclaimed expert in non-verbal communication.
Having been internationally recognisable by the ponytail he has worn since his teens, Iglesias has now lopped it off, giving him a completely new image to the one he has shown to the world for the best part of a quarter of a century.
Iglesias, 42, recently dropped out of politics altogether – he had made the very risky decision to switch his position as national government second-in-command and founder of the party which had gone from a small activist group meeting in a garage in Madrid seven years ago to the coalition partners in Spanish Parliament for that of head candidate for said party in the Greater Madrid regional elections.
His gamble did not pay off: Iglesias' left-wing party Unidas Podemos did not achieve the victory it had hoped for, and a coalition deal with other leftist outfits in the region would not have been enough to prevent right-wing PP leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso from holding onto her power and leadership.
As a result, Unidas Podemos was just a small part of the Madrid regional opposition – with just seven seats out of the required majority of 69 - and, taking political responsibility for its lack of success, Pablo Iglesias gave up his seat and ended his career.
A week later, Iglesias appeared with his hair short.
His only variation on the ponytail since the end of the last century was when he rolled it into a bun to prevent his two-year-old twin boys and his baby daughter from pulling it.
Specialist in non-verbal communication José Luis Martín Ovejero says: “In general, getting a very different hairstyle comes from a very personal desire to break free from the past.
“It's like shouting out to the world: 'If you think I look different, it's because I'm not the same person any more, I'm someone new from now on.”
Given how much of his life Iglesias has worn his hair long and in a ponytail, Martín Ovejero says cutting it off is 'a very radical change'.
“The ponytail, either loose or in a bun, formed a major part of his 'brand' as a person; in fact, if we asked people in the street to name just one feature about Pablo Iglesias, the ponytail would be mentioned straight away.
“So he's completely broken off from his 'personal brand'.”
Martín Ovejero says the long hair acted as a kind of symbol of Pablo Iglesias in his early days of what was then known as Podemos – before it joined forces with United Left, or Izquierda Unida, to become Unidas Podemos – to show he and his team were a long way apart from 'old politics', at a time when government in Spain and practically every region and local council was a straight contest between the 'big two', the right-wing PP and left-wing socialists, or PSOE.
Iglesias had been one of the founder members of the 15-M protest movement, named as such after their first-ever sit-in in the centre of Madrid on May 15, clamouring against the then PP government's high taxes, low unemployment and constant home repossessions after the ordinary citizen was forced to 'make sacrifices' to refund a €100 million EU bailout for the country's banks.
“Ever since the 15-M movement, Iglesias presented himself as someone who did not belong to the 'political caste' [an expression first coined by Iglesias himself to describe the 'establishment' of the PP and PSOE] and that his public image was vastly different. He showed himself as a person who had burst onto the scene to transform the political past we all knew so well and to change its present, too, replacing it with his ideal of the future.
“The haircut is, in some way, a way of renouncing all those dreams he brought with him.”
Image is 'fundamental' in politics, says Martín Ovejero.
“It's been proven scientifically that we form an impression of a person within the first 10 seconds of meeting or seeing them, and our image is a crucial way of telling those watching us that we belong to a given social group, or that we do not belong to another – of saying, in Iglesias' case, that he did not belong to those politicians you're used to seeing in a shirt and tie.
“But I started seeing what I expected would be a drastic change months ago. Already, when he started wearing his ponytail in a bun because, as he said, his children kept pulling his hair, it was the start of a transition. He had already started wearing a suit jacket and tie, and the bun was a way of making his hair look less long.”
Iglesias has reportedly already said his post-political life will probably involve his returning to his old job as university tutor, or perhaps critical journalism, or a combination of both, but Martín Ovejero believes he will never completely shed his old self, ponytail or no ponytail.
“Except for those who only discover who he is from about now, Pablo Iglesias will always be Pablo Iglesias; it's going to be very difficult for him to change people's opinions about him, good ones or bad, with a simple haircut,” Martín Ovejero argues.
It did not take long for the ex-MEP's hairdo to go viral: Within hours of the photograph by Dani Gago appearing in numerous media sources, it had been retweeted 16,000 times, and memes started to appear by the dozen.
Related Topics
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