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胡子的式樣記錄了人們審美的發展和社會心理的變化：它曾是男性力量、貴族氣質和才智的標志，隨著后工業時代的到來以及人們個性的勃發，現代男性的胡子樣式變得更加異彩紛呈。
By Paula Marantz Cohen
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In primitive societies, a beard was often the sign of masculinity,[1] but in advanced societies, it ceases to be meaningful. Men now don’t need to feel bad if they can’t grow a beard, and if they can and do, they can make the beard mean what they wish.
Beards have risen and fallen in popularity over the course of history. Greeks favored them. Romans (at least late Romans) did not. They disappeared among the upper classes in Europe in the early 17th century, then reappeared during the Victorian era[2], only to decline again in the 20th century. It is interesting to think of the many great men in history who had beards: Socrates, Christ, Lincoln, Freud, Lenin (the first two represented at least as having them)[3]. Imaginary figures like Santa Claus and Father Time—beneficent, wise, and elderly—are represented with beards.[4] Almost all movie stars have been beardless in their offscreen[5] image. Madison Avenue advertisers in the mid-20th century can be credited with popularizing clean-shaven male jaws.[6] The counter-culture[7] of the late 1960s brought beards back into public view. Al Gore[8] grew a beard at the height of his environmental activism but also after his political career was over. One cannot imagine a serious politician these days wearing a beard.
Alexander the Great forbade the growing of beards in his army; he was concerned that the enemy would take hold of the hair for leverage.[9] Few professional athletes have beards, perhaps for the same reason.
Jews have always had an interesting relationship to beards. The Orthodox of the religion have traditionally worn beards because the Bible states: “You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard”—hence the wearing of sidelocks as well as beards.[10] The sons of Jewish immigrants in America abandoned beards as a way of opposing both religious orthodoxy and the mentality associated with their fathers.[11]
Today, many 20-somethings take an alternative between a five o’clock shadow and a two-day stubble.[12] It looks as though they have forgotten to shave. But I suppose this is the point—the look is an affectation[13] of forgetting to shave, not a real forgetting. Their quasibeardedness is more whimsical, more a self-proclaimed mask.[14] It may also reflect a slowing of the progress from childhood to maturity, what sociologists, referring to the years between 20 and 30, have dubbed “emerging adulthood.”
In the end, I think we need to look beyond men to women in understanding what the shadow/stubble means. Women, let’s face it, give mixed messages about what they want—and male facial hair is no exception. Shakespeare’s Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing put it well in describing our difficulty in settling on a preference.[15] She notes: “He that hath a beard is more than a youth and he that hath no beard is less than a man.” If today’s young men have figured out how to resolve this double bind[16], I applaud them.
Vocabulary
1. primitive society: 原始社會；masculinity: 男子氣概。
2. Victorian era: 維多利亞時代，指英國女王維多利亞[1837—1901]統治時期，當時英國加緊向外擴張，建立龐大殖民地，工商業也迅速發展，為英國歷史上的“黃金時代”。
3.……蘇格拉底、耶穌基督、林肯、弗洛伊德、列寧（前兩位至少表現起來是有胡子的）。
4. Santa Claus: 圣誕老人；Father Time: 時光老人，常被描繪成蓄有胡子的老人，身著長袍，手持鐮刀和沙漏。在一些國家的新年習俗中，時光老人代表了過去的一年，他將時間交予新年娃娃（Baby New Year，代表新的一年）；beneficent: 仁慈的，行善的。
5. offscreen: 銀幕外的，影星私人生活中的。
6. Madison Avenue advertiser: 麥迪遜大街的廣告商，麥迪遜大街為美國廣告業中心；credit sb. with sth.:將……歸功于某人；clean-shaven: 刮光胡子的，不蓄須的。
7. counter-culture: “反文化”運動，20世紀60年代，美國戰后出生的年輕一代在國內發起了聲勢浩大的“反文化”運動，以各種方式反抗主流價值觀，其中包括校園民主運動、婦女解放運動、黑人民權運動等方面的政治運動，也包括搖滾樂、性解放、嬉皮文化等方面的文化運動。
8. Al Gore: 戈爾（1948— ），美國前副總統，卸任后致力于環保事業。
9. Alexander the Great: 亞歷山大大帝 （356BC—323BC），馬其頓國王，先后征服希臘、埃及和波斯，并入侵印度，建立亞歷山大帝國；take hold of the hair for leverage: 此處指揪住胡子以便攻擊。
10. the Orthodox of the religion: 正統派猶太教徒；“You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard”: “頭的兩鬢不可剃，胡須的周圍也不可損壞”（《圣經?利未記 19: 27》）；sidelocks: 正統派猶太男教徒將鬢角蓄起，編成辮子垂下來，稱為sidelocks。
11. orthodoxy: 此處指正統派猶太教；mentality: 心態。
12. 如今，二十來歲的年輕人則選擇一種介乎于青噓噓的下巴和兩天沒刮的胡茬之間的效果。stubble: 胡茬。
13. affectation: 假裝。
14. 這些年輕人似有似無的胡須，看上去更加捉摸不定，更像是一張標榜自我的面具。
15. 莎翁喜劇《無事生非》中，女主角Beatrice 極好地闡釋了女性在確定傾心之人時的困境。
16. double bind: 進退兩難的困境。
（來源：英語學習雜志）
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