Word: facially
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...look these days--on late-night talk shows, on Super Bowl offensive lines, at Federal Reserve Board meetings and maybe even in the next cubicle or across the dinner table--beards that typically resemble two to three weeks of stubble are adorning male faces. In some particularly trendy areas, facial hair has become as essential an accessory for would-be chic men as oversized totes are for their female counterparts. "Beards are back," says Allan Peterkin, a pogonologist (a.k.a. beard scholar) and author of One Thousand Beards. "It is an act of rebellion. Men are trying to prove that they...
Peterkin notes that as it did 40 years ago, the acceptance of beards may coincide with mounting opposition to an unpopular war. "Just like with hippies in the '60s, facial hair represents a visible sign of protest," he says. "It could be an anti-militaristic expression." For some, it's again a way to set themselves apart at a time when people are unhappy with the country's political and business leadership and uncertain about its economic future. Matthew Turtell, 25, an associate marketing manager at Rodale, says that his on-again, off-again beard helps him feel different from...
Recently, facial hair has also emerged as a badge of honor, a way to demonstrate support for a cause or express camaraderie. Conan O'Brien and David Letterman grew beards to show support for the writers' strike, and some members of the New England Patriots offensive line have said that ditching the razor blade helped unify the team. Last fall, for the first time ever in the U.S., around 2,000 men participated in Movember--a monthlong mustache-growing competition that raises money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation...
Still, there are holdouts. Most police departments continue to outlaw beards, claiming they make officers look unprofessional. The management of the New York Yankees also refuses to let players wear facial hair below the upper lip. And then there are unspoken prohibitions in many parts of the corporate world. "I should have a right to wear my own facial hair as I please," says Justin Wolff, 32, a student at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, who hopes to keep his short beard when he starts working next year. "But I am not going to risk...
Research on gay relationships is young. The first study to observe how gays and lesbians interact with their partners during conversations (monitoring facial expressions, vocal tones, emotional displays and physical reactions like changes in heart rate) wasn't published until 2003, even though such studies have long been a staple of hetero-couple research. John Gottman, a renowned couples therapist who was then at the University of Washington, and Robert Levenson, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, led a team that evaluated 40 same-sex couples and 40 straight married couples. The psychologists concluded that gays...