According to a recent poll conducted by Pew, atheists are considered with more suspicion than rapists in America, while another source suggests that (avowed) atheists have virtually no chance of being elected president. It set me wondering whether any other category of candidate has less prospect of acceding to the White House, and I think I have hit upon an even more hapless group of persons. I am referring to those of us sporting beards and, to a lesser extent, moustaches. Truly, it is easier for a camel to access the White House than for a bearded man to become president.
Quite why this should be so I don't really know. The last bearded man to become president of the USA was Benjamin Harrison in 1889, and the last mustachioed president was William Howard Taft in 1909. Since then, they have been a clean-shaven, if not a clean-living lot. The same rule applies in Hollywood, that other branch of show business. Moustaches have been out for stars since Clark Gable's time. And, although I have no hard and fast data to substantiate my claim, I am prepared to bet that the same principle pertains where women are concerned.
In the UK, moustaches were quite common occurrences among prime ministers up to the time of Harold Macmillan (1957-63), but you would have to go back to the Marquess of Salisbury in the late 19th century to find a bearded PM.
Beards and moustaches were in quite common supply in France up to 1940. In our time, General de Gaulle wore a moustache with distinction but I think he shaved it off when he became president.
So what's it all about? Is it that beards are associated in our minds with hell's angels, hippies, prospectors for gold and other undesirable types?
Well, I shall probably cause huge offence among your readership, so stand well back.
ReplyDeleteMy view is that once "famous" or at any rate having gone through the process of getting famous either politically or onto the silver screen these chaps (and ladies too, you said?) see themselves as others see them - in other words, not very desirable. I've always felt there was something distinctly unwashed about beardies. And moustaches remind me of - now, who was it?
Anyway, uggh.
If the Major is reading - sorry, old boy!
How strange - not a single riposte from around the globe!
ReplyDeleteCan this be
(a) deeply shocked comas?
(b) puzzlement while anxiously clutching knee-length beards?
or just
(c) fury at whoever this Anon might be, questioning their choice of hirsute styling?
Oh well - where's that Gillette? Gotta smooth out those legs .........