Are bearded blokes more sexist? Scientists have critically discovered that men with beards are not necessarily more sexist than clean-shaven chaps, despite previous research which indicated "a connection between facial hair and negative attitudes about women". Back in 2015, Aussie researchers Barnaby J. Dixson and Julian A. Oldmeadow asked 309 Indian and 223 …
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There is nothing in the Koran requiring men to have beards, but it is in the sayings of the prophet Mohammed. Some Muslims argue that the sayings of the Prophet may be reinterpreted to reflect changes in society over the last 1,400 years. Other Muslims say that people who argue this way should be beheaded. You pays your money ...
It's undoubtedly true that in Britain, Muslims are over-represented amongst men with beards, but there is no 1-1 correlation between the two sets.
And I think that "the muslim faith not respecting women much" is also a bit wide of the mark; OK there are *some* Islamic cultures that make women second class citizens (UK ally and arms customer Saudi Arabia is a good example) but Muslim countries like Turkey, Pakistan and Bangladesh have all had female Prime Ministers (Bangladesh still has) so where does that put the USA & UK in the "respecting women" contest?
@Known Hero; "You could say they were beating round the ..."
(Known Hero takes out and puts on a pair of children's toy plastic sunglasses)
"... Bush"
YEEEEEEAAAAAA.... er, no.
That's *not* the type of hair that "bush" normally refers to. :-O
By the way, does "round a bout" refer to the crowd in a boxing match?
what a round a bout way of stating, it might be influenced by the muslim faith not respecting women much & requiring beards. or ...... am I being too sceptical
Errm... in the first place, there's nothing in Islam about having a beard.
In the second place, when I think of 'India' and beards, I think Sikhs, and beards are required in Sikhism for all guys. However, Sikhs are notorious for being of the opinion that women (or at least Sikh women) are equal to men (or at least Sikh men) and superior to some men (that would be any man who's not a Sikh). In other words, Sikh girls are superior to you, boyo, and won't be shy about saying so. And most Sikh girls won't require any assistance from Sikh guys in kicking non-Sikh ass.
In the third place, while some Muslims (Saudi nutbags, for example) aren't particularly respectful of women, others have little or no problems. The Saudi nutbags and those who think like them really hate that, and in many cases don't consider such Muslims to be true Muslims. Said not-really-true-Muslims tend to ignore the Saudi nutbags and friends, which really makes the nutbags upset.
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I noticed I got a lot of thumbs down for mentioning the "M" word !! (really are we at that stage now !!!)
But if you bothered to read the story written, it was the researchers way of writing that I was commenting upon, But no no no, you all grab your pitchforks and downvote away !! I must be a dailymail skinhead due to the simple reason I uttered the M word :/
Actually it was a response in particular to two paragraphs which led to my comment pointing out it was a rather long winded way of not actually pointing the finger whilst pointing the finger. personally I cant think of many faiths requiring beard growth who have a reputation for not treating women with much respect.
Authors Kahl Hellmer and T. Johanna Stenson elaborate: "We suggest that facial hair is, to some extent, used by men as a sociocultural symbol that, depending on the cultural environment, signals qualitatively distinct group membership
"Consequently, men in different cultures and traditions cease shaving to pursue different social group memberships, some of which may — or may not — be tied to more traditional or conservative values."
> As a youth shaving gave me a bad rash
(To revive an old Usenet meme: AOL)
I do sometimes (as in - twice in the last 15 years) take the guard off the beard-trimmer and cut it back to less than 1mm. Just to remind all and sundry what my unprotected face looks like.
I soon grow it back again.
Many, many moons ago I had the fond pleasure of telling off a snide psychology professor. The professor asserted that men grow beards due to a fundamental, and overpowering public anxiety/need to hide.
I countered that I merely didn't shave as I was too lazy to do so, and was too cheap to buy razor blades at 15$ a pack. The prof's response involved a lot of sputtering, a stumbled claim of anecdotal evidence, and a red face over my particularly smug smile.
That was my last psych class.
The prof's response involved a lot of sputtering, a stumbled claim of anecdotal evidence, and a red face over my particularly smug smile.
That was my last psych class.
Why stop when you were having fun? You could have had many hours of entertainment at that particular professor's expense. If you had played it right, you could have gotten a study funded to completely undermine the professor's stated theory, just like the researchers in the article did (at least the funding part).
I had an anthropology professor assert pretty much the same, but who then went ahead and asked why I wore a beard. My list was 1) it grows there, and shaving it off is trouble for no discernible reward, though keeping it clipped keeps it from getting in the way, 2) pain, it's no fun shaving and self-torture is not my bag, and 3) cost and spending options, unless you're a crackerjack with sharpening stone and a strop you buy blades, and not buying a pack means you CAN buy more coffee.
> store small quantities of Guinness
Eww. Guiness[1].
Now if t'were a proper zider wiv bits in it I might be interested. Or a nice bottle of heavy red wine (Rex Mundi will do nicely).
[1] I'll admit that it's not Guiness per-se - it's beer in general. The only beer I've ever drunk without feeling terrible the next day [2] is either German Weissbeer or US Budwiser[3].
[2] Even after small amounts. And I can drink whisky without bad side effects and eat barley-bread without a problem.
[3] Probably because the actual beer content is so low as to be a homeopathic levels.
"I think Mr Zappa would have cause with that: 'Catholic girls, with a tiny little moustache'."
Mr. Zappa is hanging out with the wrong Catholic girls.
Fond memories of Elizabeth Ryan, who most definitely did not have a moustache, tiny or otherwise. I made her laugh by singing Billy Joel's 'Only the Good Die Young'. Not so fond memories of Sister Hildegarde, a.k.a. Attila the Nun, who did not have a _tiny_ moustache. And who could easily have played on the Minnesota Vikings' defensive line, except that I don't think that the NFL allows you to use an 18" ruler to whack the opposing quarterback on the knuckles. I pissed her off when she heard me singing 'Only the Good Die Young' to Liz.
"because women are, frankly, utter shite when it comes to sporting facial hair."
Not always true! When I were a lad many decades ago, I had a date with a beautiful Armenian girl I met at a local youth club; when I turned up for the date she was accompanied by an ancient chaperone in a black dress and a black lace head scarf, not only did her facial hair put mine to shame ( kind of Van Dyk, moustache and sideburns) she sucked her popcorn all the way through the first Doctor Who and the Daleks movie.
I was also too nervous to even think of a goodnight kiss at the end of the date.
I note that neither piece of 'research' has gathered the views of bearded ladies. Once again hirsute ladies are ignored in a blatantly sexist attempt to sideline those who don't conform to the narrow parameters of conventional beauty.
I shall be writing to the Gaurdinnan!
Rosie
P.S. no, I am not a bearded lady but that doesn't mean I don't have the right to get offended on their behalf and act as a spokesperson for their community.
Once again we see a so-called survey in which bias is built-in from the get-go.
The sample should include groups of women, men, transgender individuals and all should be represented by both bearded and non-bearded persons.
These people should be made to wear burkhas and to speak through randomly cycling frequecy shifters when answering the survey to avoid biasing the quizmaster with visual and/or sonic cues.
Each should also wear a harness that can deliver small shocks to various parts of their bodies so that a consistent and non-gender identifying mode of fidgeting can be imposed on the sample.
To be absolutely rigorous the subjects shouldn't know to which group they belong, nor whether or not they are clean-shaven.
A lot of us who wear beards today have grown up in the days when orthodontist interventions had a much lower success rate, varicella vaccine was unheard of and some of us have even been around smallpox before it was eradicated.
We carry beards to conceal one or more of the above and that has nothing to do with misogynism.
> is an utter twunt.
On the other hand the wife seems to like me with a jumper draped around my shoulders. Since there appears to be a correlation between wearing a jumper draped over my shoulders and and the likelihood of expressions of physical affection. All I can say is that I'm happy to look like a twunt in return for the rewards it seems to bring.
The bloke in the photo does indeed look like a twunt, what ever that might be.
Consequently, men in different cultures and traditions cease shaving
This supposes that shaving is the natural order. It isn't: growing a beard is natural; shaving is an act of denial of this. Shaving arose originally, as far as I know, as a symbol of status.
If I let my beard grow, do I am become more sexist?
The last few years have seen an explosion in beardedness*. It's hard to believe that we're all becoming commensurately more sexist.
* I get the impression that it isn't very age-specific. Younger guys grow a beard to look cool. Old geezers like me grow them because they're tired of shaving, and in a probably futile attempt to conceal facial shortcomings.
Reached its 28th birthday last year, last time I shaved it off was due to a visit to a very, very hot climate and it seemed prudent to do so. Currently I would be a good approximation to Gimli in terms of beard, height wise I would have to be chopped off at the knees to complete the look.
On the article it strikes me that the current fashion for beards would pretty much destroy any data concerning sexism and beards. I do know that there is a fair amount of pogonophobia out there and it would be interesting to see whether that shows a gender trait, however, the current prevalence of beardies may nullify any conclusions that are made with current data.
It would seem that the researchers are suffering from confirmation bias: Only men are the perpetrators of sexism and only women are the victims. As that is an assumption based on gender; it is, by definition, sexist.
When are they going to publish research about the sexist attitudes of women? Or research of sexist attitudes towards men?
P.S. before you down-vote, how many of you knew of the word "misandry" before you googled it? My spell checker does not recognise the word, but it has no problem with misogyny.
"P.S. before you down-vote, how many of you knew of the word "misandry" before you googled it?"
I did. so no need to google it.
Still downvoted you though for being so pathetic.
"My spell checker does not recognise the word, but it has no problem with misogyny."
Nor it seems do you.
Sorry kid. But nobody cares that she laughed when you showed her your little winky. Even though your mummy called you her big boy.
Misandry is a fairly well known word and is misused to mean something the speaker dislikes just as often as equivalent words such as commie, fascist or misogynist.
For an example see above. These researchers are a lot of negative things but there's no clear evidence of misandry.
a. Unless they had one hell of a research grant, presumably they did their research from Australia, not the US or India.
b. So unless they used Skype, FaceTime, or the like, they took the men's word for beard quality.
c. On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog: how do they know that these were even men?
d. My experience of telephone polls is that I answer them with a fraction of my attention.
I'm very much of the "hate shaving" camp. So I don't so much grow a beard as not shave it, and it's what happens. No-one asks if I'm growing the grass, they just assume I'm a lazy fucker who doesn't want to mow his lawn. Same theory for beard. Actually, same for long hair....
After 10+ years of shaving between once and four times a day (or being asked if I was sporting designer stubble) it's just a hell of a lot less faff. Plus beard is a lot nicer on skin of those who get close enough. The looking less baby faced helps too.
My straw poll of 4 female colleagues suggests that women couldn't care less whether a man has a beard and that it doesn't signify anything with regard to sexism. However, there was one important caveat: if they had felt inclined to get up close and personal with aforesaid man, 3 out of the 4 would care: there's a thing called 'beard burn'.
and sometimes vain, and I spend about half the time clean-shaven and half bearded (same for long hair/short hair). Currently the beard is longer than it's ever been, and I'm starting to tug it. And think: 'By my beard!' I just watched The Hobbit trilogy again and felt a kinship to the Dwarfs. I keep thinking it's time to shave it off again, and look young again; but I'm getting into it!
And I freely admit to being sexist! I love women! They're much more fun.
I have a beard and I most certainly do not have a negative attitude about women. I dislike everyone equally the same, Men, Women, Democrats, Republicans, and their children. We are so busy being offended while equally offending others to the same and in most cases greater degree that we cant get a thing done in this once Great Nation and No way in Hell Trump could either. In fact no one currently hurling insults at the other in this great political season has a snowballs chance in hell of cleaning up the mess that Bush 2 made and Obama has most definitely made Worse.
Beard? Check.
Misogyny? Hmmm. Ask the wife. Here, let me unchain her for you.
...Sorry, couldn't help myself. I'm in the "too lazy to shave" and "sensitive skin" camps. Which is ironic since these days I sport a goatee, which requires constant maintenance.
Then again, you can't draw a curve from one point. Maybe I'm a statistical outlier, like the other dozen or so men in this forum making the same claims.
Or maybe I'm just lying or fooling myself and I really do hate women. I could claim not to be racist either, and which of you would know?
So I haven't proven anything by posting here. Never mind. Back to work for me!
The Git has a beard and is mightily discriminatory in the sex department. To wit, he's never going to shag a beardless boy to demonstrate his sensitive and caring undiscriminatory sexuality for some stupid feminazi! Real men discriminate mightily. And cook their wives gourmet meals, vacuum the carpet, hang out the washing etc.
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