The Good Old Bearded Masculinity. A Journey into the World of Barbers and Beard-Bearers Cover Image

Męskość z brodą. Podróż do świata barberów i brodaczy
The Good Old Bearded Masculinity. A Journey into the World of Barbers and Beard-Bearers

Author(s): Marcin Rudek
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Media studies, Sociology of Culture
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: beard; masculinity; barber shop; retrotopia;

Summary/Abstract: Today’s men are faced with ever growing number of expectations, especially related to their looks. To meet those expectations, some men decided to combine two things: grooming and the aura of masculinity. The foregoing combination yielded the popular parlours called “barber shops” with all the accompanying societal and media atmosphere. Moreover, it has appeared that beard, being a historically symbolic part of person’s looks, in this day and age may be the glue of sexually homogenous communities/community characterised by retrotopia (Zygmunt Bauman’s term). The said communities make it possible for men to create powerful brotherly bonds but, at the same time, are potentially the spaces of regression in terms of women’s and other dominated groups’ emancipation.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 1 (15)
  • Page Range: 1-20
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Polish