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Abstract

Here, the dynamics of manipulation in a few of these dramas will be explored through material clues of class and gender norms. Relationship dynamics in films, particularly in those of manipulation in film noir, are codified in hundreds of ways, so objects, shadows, and songs stand in for what characters lack and long for. Hair is one coded object that is taken for granted and yet tells many stories. In film noir, it tells tales of classiness, allure, age, and the ubiquity of mundane social norns in hairstyling: self-manipulation for self-presentation. Hair is both a body part and a tangible key to intangible social strata, separating misers from gentlemen, and wannabe's from ladies. Above all, hair is normal in film noir.

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