During the Renaissance, the beard was the defining feature of a man

Well of course, this can be deduced scientifically: most characteristics of sexual dimorphism in humans are not polite to flaunt in public, but a beard is one of the few features of sexual dimorphism that is acceptably to show publicly, so it is only natural that men want to show off their beards.

mywittyname• 7 years ago

It's quite acceptable to be tall and speak with a deep voice in society. Most male clothing is intended to highlight masculine features, such as broad shoulders, and present a generally "top heavy" look.

jjtheblunt• 7 years ago

Like Elizabeth Holmes tried to leverage, I just thought.

User232• 7 years ago

Likewise plenty of female clothing accentuates physical traits that happen to be fertility proxies.

compiler-guy• 7 years ago

If this theory were true, then beards wouldn't come and go into and out of fashion. Which they do.

blankaccount• 7 years ago

Did beards go in/out of fashion, or did oppressing this particular form of masculinity go in/out of fashion?

ska• 7 years ago

this can be deduced scientifically

This does not mean what you seem to think it means.

roenxi• 7 years ago

Safety razor was invented around WWII [0] and that is probably linked to the requirements of wearing a gas mask. Probably has something to do with the change in fashion.

Fun fact; often there is a general ban on beards in underground coal mines because the miners need to be able to wear gas masks.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor#History

Aloha2• 7 years ago

WWI, not II

hokumguru• 7 years ago

Firefighters also aren't allowed to grow beards for the same reason.

seandhi• 7 years ago

It's the same way in chemical plants that handle H2S or other dangerous chemicals. I've always had a beard, but I'd have to shave it when installing or servicing our equipment in those plants.

lacampbell3• 7 years ago

Beards went in and out of fashion a lot between the Renaissance and WWII.

inawarminister• 7 years ago

Yeah, IIRC the Greeks were big into beards, while the Romans shave them most of the time.

motohagiography2• 7 years ago

And the foregone conclusion in the article:

"The dramatic uses of the sign of Renaissance masculinity par excellence – the beard – reveal how precarious, provisional and potentially groundless the ideology of early modern masculinity was, the very ideology upon which the sign-system of the stage relied. As we look at today’s hipsters – beards, man-buns and tattoos aplenty – we may also wonder what lies beneath the surface of the identities that they construct."

Appears the writer confuses criticism with competence. It's the conceit of modern academia. Yawn.

mturmon• 7 years ago

I don't see criticism [of bearded hipsters, I suppose you mean] in that last paragraph. But it was disappointing because it hints at something but says nothing.

Dirlewanger• 7 years ago

It honestly comes off as thinly-veiled misandry (wouldn't be surprising as the author is a woman). Would this be appropriate to say about cultural things around celebrating a young girl being a full-grown woman?

Aloha2• 7 years ago

The byline does indeed indicate it was written by a woman, but I've seen similar misandristic critical writing from men too.

cycrutchfield• 7 years ago

How is an article about the role of beards in history “thinly-veiled misandry”? What’s with the MGTOW/redpill language?

C1sc0cat• 7 years ago

So what does that mean for that famous picture of the non bearded "Honeyed Cat" (a famous Condota / Mercenary then)

elipsey2• 7 years ago

I'm sure this is a misunderstanding. I believe the author means to remind us that fashion and gender norms are arbitrary and performed, not to say that the hipsters chose theirs' _wrong_. Societal standards of masculinity are of particular interest here because they capricious, mutable, and especially likely to result in ass-kickings.

In conclusion the author encourages us to reflect on the difference between the person and the performance, and hold our assumptions lightly. You are not your beard.

klipt• 7 years ago

It seems a little clinical and dehumanizing. I wonder how people would react to similar writing about women:

"The dramatic uses of the sign of Renaissance femininity par excellence – the hairdo – reveal how precarious, provisional and potentially groundless the ideology of early modern femininity was, the very ideology upon which the sign-system of the stage relied. As we look at today’s hipsters – hairdos, cardigans and makeup aplenty – we may also wonder what lies beneath the surface of the identities that they construct."

deogeo• 7 years ago

I think tactical nihilism fits this well: https://pics.me.me/the-legendary-blade-of-tactical-nihilism-...

motohagiography2• 7 years ago

In case my comment was ambiguous, this article was a pretext for a critic to repeat a trope wrapped in trivia, and an attempt to conflate their opinion with insight. It begged mockery.

To address it directly, the article was a vehicle for a criticism of the legitimacy of masculine traits without demonstrating any competence in embodying them, making it a petty complaint wrapped in academ-ese.

If gender norms were arbitrary, anyone could be a good man, even a great one, and yet even though this is allegedly arbitrary, there are still so few of them. What the author views critically as "performance" is the effect of their embodiment, just as music is not arbitrary and merely performed, but the effect of the skill of the performer. This trope that masculinity is merely performitive is like saying Rachmaninoff or Arthur Rubinstein were just actors. It's the artifact of a dissociated hall of mirrors worldview that has seized intellectuals who have no grounding in physicality and competence. All I can add is, sure, totally performitive.

Having a critical theory of music does not make one a musician, and playing some show tunes doesn't make you a great one. While the listener is free to like or dislike it, the author's opinion carries about as much weight as any other complaint.

I do agree that a man is certainly not his beard, in fact to have one is a statement that he is more magnificent than his beard, which, given modern grooming concoctions, is a very bold statement to make indeed.

What makes hipsterdom so laughable is that their beards are more remarkable than their achievements. What makes this article laughable is the author can't tell the difference.

I would regret if my views were not presented clearly.

decoyworker2• 7 years ago

I have a theory that lazy/poor/busy modern men are the reason that beards are back in style. Economic factors contribute to trends pretty often.

agumonkey3• 7 years ago

What about hipster kind bearded guys ? I see a lot a of Barbershop popping up while it wasn't really part of the Parisian culture much (I may be wrong though) and people actually spending time and money on their beardss.

rebuilder3• 7 years ago

Isn't it almost a cliche that trends start in the underclasses and spread to the wealthy?

9HZZRfNlpR• 7 years ago

I don't use these places but if you don't like shaving every morning, it's more convenient to pop in there time to time to correct it. When it's messy, you're still fashionable at least for now not unhygienic or lazy.

paganel• 7 years ago

Just an additional data point, wanted to add that barbershops have also started to appear in considerable numbers in Bucharest, we definitely didn’t have them in the past.

toyg• 7 years ago

How quickly people forget.

Across most of Europe, haircut shops and barbershops used to be the same thing all the way to the late 80s.

michalu• 7 years ago

An opposing theory would be that more and more people are breaking away from 9 to 5 office jobs, that mostly require short hair and shave.

Independent, rich and alike unemployed people can dress and style themselves however they like. So it's hard to tell.

astura• 7 years ago

Yeh, and of the ones that do work, employers have gotten much more permissive about appearance. When I first entered the workforce if you had an unkempt beard, visible tattoos, unnatural hair color, or piercings you were almost entirely unemployable. Nowadays I see people with all four not only employed, but employed in customer service positions!!!

My friend was the exception - when we were younger she was allowed to work with a lip piercing, but only because she worked at Spencer's!

stronglikedan• 7 years ago

It's much easier to keep clean shaven than it is to maintain a beard, so beards are not the ideal choice for the lazy man. It's also much less time consuming to shave, so neither are they the ideal choice for the busy man. Razors are the cheapest facial hair grooming tool, so not the ideal choice for the poor man either. They type of lazy/poor/busy man that would wear a beard would likely not be clean shaven on a daily basis regardless.

EDIT: To clarify, I'm talking about kempt facial hair, which is implied by the context of both the article in question and the comment that I'm responding to. Anyone can be unkempt, but that is never stylish.

decoyworker2• 7 years ago

Most beards that I see are not maintained in the slightest.

rebuilder3• 7 years ago

I would argue that depends very much on what you consider maintained...

Also, of course, the growth rate of the beard. I knew a man once who said he used to act in theatre and was often cast as the young lover type, and had to shave during intermission...

rosser• 7 years ago

I have worn a beard nearly continuously for approaching three decades, now.

I used to keep my beard neat enough with a pair of scissors, a mirror, and few minutes every few days. Then I got a wet-dry trimmer that I used periodically in the shower. Now I'm just growing it out (about 5 months in), and I work a dab of shampoo in occasionally.

Beard maintenance really isn't that onerous. I spend vastly more time grooming my untrimmed whiskers than I ever spent trimming them. Being clean-shaven takes significantly more frequent effort, and though I have no data points, given all the process involved in shaving, it probably takes a lot more time, all-in, too.

EDIT: Phrasing

nugga• 7 years ago

You might be talking about long beards taking some effort to maintain but keeping some 5-15 mm stubble is pretty convenient and fast with an electric trimmer and changeable blades.

pandler• 7 years ago

I have a beard precisely because it’s trivial for me to maintain. I trim it down to 3/8 inch maybe once every two weeks, and clean up my neck in 30 seconds with the trimmer about once a week.

Yeah sure it’s not a flowing 5 inch beard, but it’s still a beard. Point is, short beards require much less maintenance to consistently look well groomed than shaving every day in my experience.

new2628• 7 years ago

My hypothesis is "compensatory excess". As men do less "manly" things then they used to, have less responsibilities, etc., they compensate on the outwards signals: beards, muscles, tattoos.

fortran77• 7 years ago

I've always had a long beard, as did my father, grandfather, great grandfather, and all the men in my family. We're poor, but we're not lazy. (We are busy, though.)

refurb• 7 years ago

Beards are actually a lot of work to maintain. Yes, you get to avoid shaving while it grows in, but after that it takes a lot of work to keep it trimmed (looks scraggly unless you do) and keep it clean while eating.

The best middle ground I found for me was shave once per week. Keeps it short and tidy and shaving isn’t a huge chore because it doesn’t get that long in a week.

0xdeadb00f2• 7 years ago

Hard disagree. I think there's more to it than those factors alone; which I must say portray your average bearded man as a drag on society (is that true? I don't think so).

mirimir8• 7 years ago

I've typically had a beard, because I hate shaving. Or rather, because I have both a bristly beard and sensitive skin. And no, shaving every day for years didn't "toughen up" my face.

setr• 7 years ago

Safety razors tend to be quite rough, and the canned foam offers little protection. Consider using a double edged razor and better cream (my personal usage is a merkur handle w/ feather blade, and cremo cream; a fairly cheap and effective set)

mirimir8• 7 years ago

Thanks. But that ship has sailed.

I do not want to see what my face looks like, now.

tsomctl• 7 years ago

I had the same problem. A double edged razor is better than a safety razor, but still problematic. I finally said fuck it and keep it trimmed to about 1/8 inch. As an added bonus, several women have complimented me on it.

UnFleshedOne2• 7 years ago

I think safety razors and double edged are the same thing.

But yeah those multi blade cartridges are rather bad, not to mention expensive. I've seen a pack of cartridges with 6 or 8 blades each for $7 a piece recently. Not sure how much they last, but my DE blade lasts for months and costs $0.10 a piece... That "investment" in a $15 DE razor will keep paying off forever...

EDIT: that life time estimate is on the basis that I shave like one a week though, if you shave daily you'll go through a few $0.10 blades in a month maybe :)

nikbackm• 7 years ago

Have you tried an electric razor?

mirimir8• 7 years ago

Yes. That was best for me. Although I had to replace the blades every few months.

scruple• 7 years ago

I've had a beard continuously since December of 2005, which is when I went on leave prior to separating from the military. Being required to shave (essentially) every single day, under the threat of the UCMJ, was sufficient motivation to forego shaving for the last ~14 years. I'll probably wear a beard for the rest of my life. I still say to people frequently, "No, it's less a beard and more that I just stopped shaving." Yes, indeed, I also genuinely hate shaving.

JohnJamesRambo2• 7 years ago

Beards are too hot for a global warming earth. I don’t see a fifth age of beards coming.

chabes• 7 years ago

Beards are not actually as hot as they might seem. Think of how a shady forest buffers the temperature. Compared to the surrounding area, it is cooler in the heat of the day, and warmer in the cold of night

JohnJamesRambo2• 7 years ago

Lol I’ve had a beard I’ll trust my own assessment.

cafard• 7 years ago

The defining feature of a man? If so, why were codpieces in fashion?

mirimir8• 7 years ago

Although codpieces aren't in fashion, tight jeans leave little to the imagination. And it's not uncommon for dress pants to be maybe a little tight in the crotch.

h2odragon• 7 years ago

Eagerly awaiting the next fashion trend:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koteka

zackmorris2• 7 years ago

Anyone have any luck growing a beard after a lifetime of not being able to? My dad could grow one after 40 but no such luck for me. Also I had a few bad sunburns under my chin snowboarding and I wonder if I triggered something like an electrolysis effect. I've noticed that some things like drinking alcohol seem to stimulate brief growth but it's not a permanent fix hah. Also I've read that testosterone levels today are much lower than what the baby boomers had, but I don't know how scientific that is. I haven't been to a doctor to get my T level checked, just curious.

bdcravens• 7 years ago

I'm 42, and can only grow a mustache and a scragly looking goatee. I'm a small guy, due to health issues, but I also have my testosterone checked for the same health issues, and it is normal. Either it's a combination of more issues (digestion perhaps? I have issues there) or it could be genetic (I'm 1/8 Native American, for example)

zackmorris2• 7 years ago

I'm the same age, kind of a taller guy because I'm 1/2 Swedish. You bring up a good point about digestive issues, because I've definitely had them over the past few years and I think they were brought on by bodybuilding supplements and/or stress. At one point my eyebrows thinned pretty severely and I think it was due to anxiety/burnout at my job. I'm wondering if beards are held in such high esteem because they are an indicator of overall constitution like face symmetry or straight teeth.

coybanana• 7 years ago

I'm 27, and I can say my ability to grow a beard has slowly improved, though I don't have anything full. That said, I do have a twin brother who can. I have a few marks on my face, so maybe your theory is on to something!

chrisbro• 7 years ago

I thought I couldn't grow a beard for forever until I followed some advice to just give it three months to fill in natural bald spots. Looks great now that I gave it the chance to actually grow instead of just giving up after 3-4 weeks.

tobr• 7 years ago

I’ve kept a beard since my late teens, and frankly it never occurred to me that some men may not be able to grow one. This has me curious. Do you mean it literally doesn’t grow, as in you don’t even need to shave - or just that it looks thin or uneven when you let it grow?

magashna• 7 years ago

I know people that have the eternal babyface. At most, a few chin hairs but otherwise smooth. Some people just don't have the genetics for a beard.

MisterTea• 7 years ago

You're not alone though I have never let it bother me. My father had a full beard and my brother can grow one too. I can't. My facial hair amounts to a rather crappy goatee. Though I've learned to work with it or use a clean shaven look.

jcfrei• 7 years ago

If you are not afraid of a little experimentation check out /r/Minoxbeards on reddit.

User232• 7 years ago

Perhaps part of the increasing popularity of beards is to hide the weak chin and jawline that can be a result of low testosterone and is presumably more prevalent due to the secular generational testosterone decline?

hadlock• 7 years ago

Beards are linked to hair patterns, for some, beards don't really begin to sprout until you start losing some up top. A lot of european-descent men (and others) can't really grow a full beard until their 40s, that is very common.

bradknowles• 7 years ago

I wasn't able to grow a beard until my late 20s.

By the time I hit 30, I was able to keep a decent goatee, but not a full beard. That didn't happen until a few years later.

Now my wife likes my full beard, and won't let me shave it off. Although she does like me to keep it shorter rather than longer.

mjw1007• 7 years ago

The idea of "four great beard movements" seems like an odd framing.

Another way to look at it is that periodically the somewhat-unnatural act of shaving becomes fashionable.

buboard• 7 years ago

Article makes it sound as if beardlessness is some kind of default? Not sure if true

kevin_thibedeau• 7 years ago

Stop shaving and let us know how that turns out.

gnzoidberg• 7 years ago

Why is this here?

zaccus• 7 years ago

You don't need to read much ancient literature to know that beards have always been associated with manliness. Going out on a limb here, but my guess is that's because typically only adult men can grow them. Shocking I know.

Anyway, it's not particular to the Renaissance at all.

bobthechef• 7 years ago

I'm pretty sure that characterization of Aristotle is bullshit. Sadly, there is a great deal that Aristotle is slanderously impugned with and mischaracterized with, including his views of women. It's a game of historian telephone and shoddy scholarship, it seems. In this case, if there's even a whiff of authenticity to the claim, it would seem that Aristotle's thoughts on development may have been given an uneducated "normative reading", i.e., one in which the author attempts to once again reinforce the idea that Aristotle was a silly bigot that we, in all our modern wisdom, should scoff at and dismiss as an unsophisticated rube.

Anyway, what's the point of this article? All I see is some woman swinging a gender ideology axe around looking for something to hit with an hazy insinuation or superficial remark. I honestly couldn't care less about hipster beards and no one claims that beards make a man a man, only that beards are a male feature.

word-reader• 7 years ago

One of the pellets in this scattershot is basically, because sometimes beards are associated with being a man, and sometimes being clean-shaven is associated with being a man, there are surely no cross-cultural or cross-temporal ideals about masculinity at all and being a man can be completely redefined by lecturers in early modern masculinity or whoever.

That being said, as someone who can't grow a great beard, I'll always have the Romans; can't blame it on gas masks or TV ads back then.

anderspitman• 7 years ago

Anyway, what's the point of this article?

To sell the author's new book.

mensetmanusman• 7 years ago

Regulated labs that use facial respirators do not allow employees to have facial hair where the attachment seal rests...

rjplatte• 7 years ago

This article is trying to say that because the theatre used beards as a symbol of manliness, the entire male identity revolved around beards. This is ridiculous.

Hoopskirts were used to represent matronly women in early American theatre: therefore women gathered around these laughable garments as a symbol of their femininity.

lacampbell3• 7 years ago

It's been a while since I've lived in a western city - is the bearded hipster still a thing? My gut tells me it must have passed its expiry date by now, but I'm not sure.

0xdeadb00f2• 7 years ago

Yes it's still a thing. I don't even think it's decreased, society just seems to care less about them than before. Because hipsters are "growing up", and so are the people who criticised them in the first place, you don't hear about it as much anymore. ("criticised" seems like the wrong word, but I can't think of another that fits).

During the Renaissance, the beard was the defining feature of a man

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