When is a beard more than a beard? When it’s on Justin Trudeau’s face GlobeDebate
Justin Trudeau attends a press conference in Ottawa on Jan. 8, 2020.Facial hair doesn’t usually merit an appearance in the news, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to sport a beard is the clear exception. When our young leader chose to adorn his handsome face with what satirists from Frank Richardson to Kingsley Amis have derided as “face fungus,” the country rubbed its collective chin and noticed.
Baseball scholars will recall that the legendary Michigan-based House of David touring squad, missionaries and cultists in pinstripes, had long flowing hair and beards. Legendary cricketer W. G. Grace was celebrated as much for his fulsome whiskers as for his deft cuts to square leg. Marshall McLuhan is supposed to have commented to Mr. Trudeau’s father, who grew a beard while in Opposition, that he was “cooling” his image. Mr. McLuhan’s notion of “cool” has to do with the degree of interaction required of a viewer, not hipness. Thus sunglasses are cool because they hide the eyes, beards because they hide the face. By contrast, a clean shave is an open book.
All of this is pretty silly, but we know politics are all about image. Mr. Trudeau, the former drama teacher, never does anything without considering impact – though not always wisely – including yoga poses, goofy Indian costuming and unforgivable brownface. Two worries occur to me, though, speaking as someone who shaves only every couple of weeks and therefore has a beard mainly through inattention.The first is that grey beards are a dicey proposition.
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