How a woman's beard became a matter of pride

Gurdit Singh, a Sikh postman working at Disney World, recently won an unusual case. Singh claimed that he had been segregated from staff and customers because of the company’s "look policy". He has been working at the theme park since 2008, but never in the sight of visitors.

He was assigned a route where he’d be completely invisible. The company felt that Singh’s beard and turban could make visitors and co-workers uncomfortable. In a statement Singh said: “My turban and beard serve as a constant reminder of my commitment to my faith... these articles remind everybody that we’re all equal.”

Different societies have different approaches to external religious symbols. The French believe in the strict separation of the church and state. A law passed in 2004 bans the wearing of symbols or clothes that show religious affiliation in all public primary and secondary schools. This means no veils or headscarves for Muslims, no turbans for Sikhs, and no crucifix necklaces for Christians. This might seem too excessive to us in India where we practise a very different brand of secularism. But let’s leave aside religion for the moment. Let’s delink the beard from religion. The beard, by and in itself, has always been a controversial facial accoutrement. Attitudes to it vary across cultures, professions and regions within the same country.

Professors

My father is a retired professor and a poet. It’s okay for him to have a beard. In fact, professors and poets are supposed to have beards. Still, he doesn’t always have an easy time. On the streets of Allahabad, where he taught at the university, his beard often attracts comments on the lines of: "There goes Saddam, there goes Sexpeare". Things change when he boards the train to Delhi. Here, sometimes, people fall at his feet and seek his blessings, or advice regarding personal matters. The beard is no longer the butt of ridicule. It signifies the wise man, the spiritual guru. Attitudes to his beard alter further once he is in the big city. At India International Centre (IIC), or at literary festivals, girls come up and whisper in my ear: "Ooh, your dad’s beard is so sexy". Thanks. So you see how the response to the same beard changes with every railway station that goes by: from funny, to erudite, to spiritual-wise, to sexy.

Most employers frown upon the long beard. My friend, a pilot, tells me that his airline accepts small trimmed ones, like the one Narendra Modi wears. A lawyer friend was recently asked to shave off his beard by his boss. He said he couldn’t introduce the young lawyer to his clients; they wouldn’t take him seriously. I thought it’d be the other way round: the beard added some gravitas to the fresh, baby face of a greenhorn lawyer. In cinema, south Indian stars often keep some facial hair, whereas Bollywood prefers its actors clean-shaven.

In sport, the beard is usually kept out. Golfers don’t have beards, nor do tennis players. But there’s one sport where beards have staged a comeback — cricket. Whether it is England’s Moeen Ali or South Africa Test captain, Hashim Amla, audiences, cricket authorities and advertisers haven’t complained.

Sportsmen

It’s heartening to see players not being targeted for their beards. It’s a matter of personal choice, aesthetic or religious. What really matters is what you do with bat and ball. Non-Muslim players like New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori and Mike Brearley too had grown beards. Thank god, the French don’t play cricket! Of course, in cricket it begins with WG Grace, the most recognisable face in Victorian England after the Queen. Perhaps it was that which made it easier for the flowing beard to be accepted in cricket.

Which brings us to popular music. Rappers rarely have proper beards, apart from some odd stuff on their chins. In the blues, it is seen as lending weight to the melancholy and sadness in the words. Beards are very popular amongst heavy metal bands where they symbolise a raging masculinity.

Musicians

But the most famous long form beards in rock history belong to the ZZ Top. With them, it even became a tool of protest against capitalism. In 1984, they were offered a million dollars by Gillette to shave their beards off and appear in an ad campaign for the company. Guitarist Billy Gibbons said: “No dice. Even adjusted for inflation, this isn't going to fly. The prospect of seeing oneself in the mirror clean-shaven is... A prospect not to be contemplated, no matter the compensation”.

The best-known beard in contemporary pop belongs to Conchita Wurst, winner of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. Popularly known as "the lady with the beard", she uses it as a weapon in the fight for gender equality. The 25-year-old performer, whose real name is Tom Neuwirth, has spoken about the difficulties of growing up gay in a small Austrian mountain town. Conchita is his alter ego. When asked about the beard, Conchita told Reuters, “The beard is statement to say that you can achieve anything, no matter who you are or how you look.” So what’s in a beard? — I hear you say. Plenty by the look of it, it seems.