Of Beards

When you see a man with a beard, what do you conclude? Do you conclude anything? How much of a role does the beard play in your judgment of the man? Yes, I say judgment, as we all make stereotypical judgments about pretty much everything we see, all of the time. It's true, if we didn't then we'd spend hours every day just looking at anything new. We stereotype to make quick judgments and move on with our lives. Don't worry, stereotyping isn't evil, neither is making judgments. You can use stereotyping to prejudice or discriminate, in which case it isn't favorable, but still not intrinsically evil, just ignorant and/or obnoxious. That's all.

So how do you stereotype beard wearers? I'll tell you how I answer that question, I'd say "it depends." A beard doesn't have any intrinsic value. It is just hair, but, if you look at the way it is styled and kept, then you can begin to apply value to it, or rather, lock the wearer into a stereotype. If you are still having trouble with my use of the idea "stereotype," try this on: using stereotypes to make character judgments of a person without giving them any opportunity to prove themselves is lame. That is my subjective opinion. But you will automatically stereotype and that's fine, but don't forget to give someone a chance to prove who they are.

Back to the beards. I don't think all beards are the same. I also don't think that every wild, unkempt beard belongs to a domestic terrorist. Nor do I think that every set of mutton chops belongs to a Confederate soldier circa 1862 (though most do). The point is that beards are like any other piece of fashion or style and they follow trends. They do not make or break a man...

The rest of this post can be found in the Ajax's Whimsical Revolution ebook for Amazon's Kindle. The book is a compilation of my favorite posts, 78 to be exact, of which this is one. If you don't have a Kindle e-reader you can download the free Amazon Kindle app for PC or Mac.