B E A R D

 

Beard - some people like it and some detest it. Nevertheless it is a controversial part (shall I say?) of a man.

There are instances that support both views. Because of a beard, a papacy was lost. That is the story of Johannes Bessarion, a 15th-century cardinal and convert from Greek Orthodoxy who strove to reunite Eastern and Western Christianity. Extraordinarily influential among the Catholic hierarchy, Bessarion was widely thought to be a likely successor to Pope Nicholas V. But at the conclave following Nicholas’s death, a serious personal flaw was pointed out: retaining an Eastern Orthodox custom shunned by Rome, Bessarion still sported a full beard. He lost!

Psychological research has been conducted on this topic, and the outcome have been rather varied. In 1969 Freedman reported that female students rated a bearded male face as more masculine, mature, independent, and sophisticated than a non bearded face. Similarly, both Roll and Verinis (1971) and Kenny and Fletcher (1973) found students rating a bearded face as more masculine, strong, and sincere, but also more dirty (versus clean). Pancer and Meindl (1978) found beardedness to lead to more positive ratings. However, Feinman and Gill (1977) found their female students to like least a man with a beard. Different views, of course.

 

The ancient Greeks and Romans called a beardless man a 'woman faced' man. Instead of men trying to become women, I think that men need to be men. We have seen that Heterosexuality works and let us leave it that way. It works because men and women are different and complimentary. Therefore, my view is that women be very lady-like and that men be very manly. Let's not disturb the equilibrium!

Some men say that a beard is to man what a makeup is to a female! But I do not have any views on this.

I have a beard. More specifically, I have a French beard. I do not have it for any specific reason. I have it. Period! My wife and daughters adore my beard and complain when I shave.

In the past I have not removed it more than 3 or 4 times. Each time when I shave my beard the reactions were – "You don’t look like yourself", " You seem so much younger!".The reactions were always predictable. Looking at the psychology of liking or not liking the beard we are led to a theory propounded by Sigmund Freud. He calls it transference - a term he used to describe how a person's response to another person can be rooted in individual historical experience. To put it simply, if in my childhood I have had an uncle with beard and he was a very nice person, then chances are that I will like anyone with a beard in my present life.

 

 

On the contrary if the same bearded uncle had been a bad person then chances are that I will detest anyone with beard in my present. Feeling affection toward a random person with beard is awkward and socially unacceptable.

Psychologically, this is transference - beards are no exception to this!