Our 29th prompt comes from B. They ask:
What’s with the ‘beard craze’ lately? Masculinity tings?
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B,
I’m one of those women that doesn’t have a thing for beards, or bearded men. I’m indifferent to them and still don’t understand how or why they are so hot. To each his/her own, I guess. The good thing about this, though, is that you will get a detached/unbiased answer.
I’ve been involved in a few conversations about this trend, and I’ve heard quite a number of arguments on why men everywhere suddenly want to grow and tend to their facial hair. I have male friends who sport beards because when they are clean shaven they look like 16 year old boys, and they get frozen at places. Their beards help them get taken more seriously, including at work.
I also think that beards are like makeup for men. This is one of the few enhancements they can make to their looks without their fragile masculinity being questioned. You can even contour your beard to switch it up from time to time. All you need to do is look at photos of celebrities with and without beards to notice the change in looks. Try it – Idris Elba, Drake, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, George Clooney…the list is long.
Which brings us to the next reason – beards make men look scruffy, and scruffy is stereotypically masculine. So many men with beards say this is why they grow them. “It makes me feel like a man.” Which of course raises questions on whether men who don’t have beards are half men. Or, at most, three-quarter men. Which of course leads us to ask whether this is, in fact, a competition.
Turns out it might be. According to Dr. Cyril Grueter, “in big societies, male primates have developed increasingly ostentatious “badges” which may enhance male sexual attractiveness to females and give them the edge over other males.” When a primate society has too many males, social and physical conflict is more commonplace, individual recognition is limited; the males become more competitive, and the badges more flamboyant. The beard is one of these badges.
So, this was about getting laid the whole time? Sigh. As Oscar Wilde said, “everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.” Anyway, this is not the first time we’ve had a beard craze, and it certainly won’t be the last. I’m sure it is correlated to the socio-political and economic climate of the world at the moment. For those who hate the trend, you can breathe easy knowing it will go away someday and probably won’t be back until after your death.
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This post is part of a daily writing experiment that I’m running for a year. I’d love it if you took part! ?