How Beards Pander to a Double Standard
It’s interesting how trends shift over the years. Where a mustache was once stylish, we now see it as an oddity. Hairstyles for women go in and out of fashion. Hoop earrings and winged eyeliner dart in and out of vogue.
Where once a bearded man would stand out as unusual (or ungroomed, depending), we have an entire culture praising the bearded man — and an entire line of beard-related grooming products to profit from the trend and support our bearded fellows. Instagram accounts with beard-worship are all the rage, and I know many a man and woman with a lusty fantasy for a bearded man.
What’s interesting to me about the bearded trend is the double standard that applies when it comes to trends between men and women.
With men, choosing to be bearded or clean-shaven seems to be strictly a matter of preference. With women, everything we do is loaded with meaning.
Women who don’t wear makeup are either naturally beautiful or not trying hard enough. Women that wear makeup are either being deceptive or not wearing it the right way (too much, not enough). Comments about how easily women…
