How to Grow and Take Care of a Beard: Tips for Gay Men

Contents:

• HOW TO GROW AND TAKE CARE OF A BEARD: TIPS FOR GAY MEN
• GAY HISTORY: WHEN DID WE TURN ON THE MOTACHE?
• A DEEPER, DARKER LOOK AT JAM BEARD, FOOD ORACLE AND GAY MAN
• 'THE GAY BEARDS' DEMYSTIFY THEIR ENDURG FRIENDSHIP
• AUTHOR JOHN BIRDSALL ON JAM BEARD'S GAY INTY AND OREGON ROOTS

HOW TO GROW AND TAKE CARE OF A BEARD: TIPS FOR GAY MEN

In the early days of queer culture, a “beard” was a wife, girliend or female pann who acted (wtgly or not) as social ver for a closeted gay man. In the days when virile movie stars dated betiful women to ver up their secret gay liftyl, the beard was an dispensable part of the social orr. Today, at least the rarified culture bubbl which I float, beg gay isn’t the shame issue of yteryear, and few if any need to mata a sexual inty ver-up.

If you’re a gay man who lik to grow a beard, you need to know how to take re of and style the bt way possible. What is a beard, and why are gay men mad wh beards?

Beards are slowly gag populary the gay muny. For a long time, a clean-shaven ch and youthful look were the stereotypil imag of gay men. Today, gay men are liberal wh facial hair styl, g beards to create favorable imprsns.

GAY HISTORY: WHEN DID WE TURN ON THE MOTACHE?

A mon misnceptn among gay men who wish to change their facial appearance is that smetic surgery is the only optn. Gay men wh thicker facial hair make better longer-term partners. What typ of beards are there for gay men?

Whether you are gay or straight, a beard enhanc your facial featur, improvg your overall attractivens by drawg attentn to your face. But he argu that Magnum also reprented a mastream, TV-iendly offshoot of a popular gay look of the era: “The so-lled ‘clone, ’ wh his obligatory mtache, bomber jacket, beefed-up shoulrs and mcular butt unr tight jeans.

This Freddie Mercury-que “clone” look had evolved turn, wr Peterk, om the subculture of “leathermen” the gay clubs of the 1970s, whose “sadomasochistic practis and role-playg flourished and beme a new homoerotic norm. ” and “Go Wt” featured both a leatherman and a mtached wboy, helpg to make Middle Ameri aware of the mtache’s proment stat gay culture.

A DEEPER, DARKER LOOK AT JAM BEARD, FOOD ORACLE AND GAY MAN

Perhaps equally vastatg for the ’stache’s populary straight society was the nng joke the first four Police Amy movi — om 1984 to 1987 — which hapls male characters fd themselv trapped a fictnal gay club, the neon-l Blue Oyster Bar, where they’re forced to dance wh fuzzy-lipped leathermen. It was an creasgly unfunny gag, which simultaneoly managed to entrench a daft homophobic stereotype and torpedo the mtache as a macho stat symbol for straight men.

What really ma mtach utterly unwearable, though, wasn’t so much their associatn wh gay and S&M subcultur but that — as epomized by those Blue Oyster sks — they beme the subject of ridicule.

For many years now, beards have been very popular North Ameri, nowhere more so than the gay muny. In morn tim, gay culture has been hypersensive to changg trends around male bety. As smooth bodi beme more fashnable the early 80s and spread, bear culture arose reactn to the shavg and the waxg that prevailed amongst most gay men.

'THE GAY BEARDS' DEMYSTIFY THEIR ENDURG FRIENDSHIP

And as hipster culture and s love of elaborate facial hair arose, gay men pied this an obssive fashn, fetishizg the motache and the beard. Well, obvly, you first need to re about the effect this has on your brothers the gay muny. But even if you personally don’t want to make that effort to thk through your sexual choic, the gay muny self n make cisns about how reprents bety.

Whether ’s advertisements for events or what you post on Facebook, ’s possible to ensure a wir reprentatn of bety the gay muny. This ensur that, at least symbolilly to beg wh, the diversy of the gay muny is better reflected. Creatg clive muni should be the number one goal of gay muni diverse societi such as North Ameri.

AUTHOR JOHN BIRDSALL ON JAM BEARD'S GAY INTY AND OREGON ROOTS

Birdsall, a wrer and former chef whose work foc on queer fluence Amerin food and homophobia the culary world.

S., those ias arrived through whe male gatekeepers like Beard, the New York Tim food edor Craig Claiborne and the members of the We and Food Society of New York, a group then domated by wealthy gay chefs who now scribe their food as “new Amerin” owe somethg to Beard, though most know him only as the face stamped on the culary medals btowed annually by the foundatn named for him. Birdsall lls the “msy” parts of his are sad, msy parts: the childhood ridicule Beard suffered bee of his size, the expulsn om llege bee of a sgle sex act, the anxiety he lived wh as a gay celebry when g out was Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of Jam BeardAnd there are troublg, msy parts: plagiarizg and takg cred for other people’s recip, acceptg paid endorsements for products that he did not always believe , and exposg himself to and fondlg young men who hoped for his profsnal support.

Birdsall, who gaed accs to many of Beard’s unpublished wrgs, he knew he was gay om a very young age. The first public airg of his gay inty was trmatic: In his hman year at Reed College, he was ught by his roommat a sexual enunter wh a profsor, and summarily expelled — a double huiatn that he never entirely revered expelled om Reed meant effectively beg banished om home — albe wh a wi soc-enomic safety .