Damn, my husband's facial hair has been a protest against my feminism for all these years?
And I thought it just looked nice.

But...I like my husband's facial hair. Damn the patriarchy...it's clearly programmed me to ignore subtle ways in which women are demeaned...wearing goatees....

I subscribe to Time and was taken aback when I read that the other day.

How is facial hair like Johnny Depp's (who is sort of effeminate) any more of a backlash against feminism than other facial hair patterns? How can facial hair, period, be a backlash against feminism?

What about women who have goatees (or "stray hairs" on their chin?) I always thought the feminist thing to do would be to subvert the patriarchal expectation of beauty maintenance (tweezing) and let them grow. So the more feminist thing to do would be to pluck?

I'm so confused...

I like to think of my new haircut as a backlash against supply side economics. Also, Esperanto.

associating my beloved johnny depp with anti-feminism? now they've gone too far.

That's strange, because I never thought Johnny Depp was particularly masculine. Not feminine, exactly, but certainly no where near macho. Even his Captain Jack character isn't all that macho compared to other pirate characters of the past. And has anyone seen Ed Wood? Depp may be a rebel, but not a particularly macho one. In fact, I'd like to think he's almost a rebel AGAINST typical macho-hollywood.

What kind of leap of imagination (because I can't say logic) is that? Okay, wait, I'll imagine I know what that means...maybe it's a statement against those feminists who don't do the bikini waxing; these men want us to know how it feels to go down on us. Or turn us off going down on other women. (Ouch! It's prickly!)

Or maybe they are just interested in the hair on their faces and like to style it, but that's a stretch.

I'm a feminist and I encouraged my boyfriend to grow a beard...gasp, wait that must mean I'm secretly a woman-hater deep down and I want to be subtly reminded of it everytime I see that manly facial hair. Thanks, "Time"- I'm gonna go protest V-day now!!

Har Freaking Har. Wait, George Bush has no facial hair. Maybe the W. really does stand for woman! :)

Well he probably needs recuperative feminist backlashing to recover from all that Jack Sparrow/Willy Wonka/Sweeney Todd camp.

Yes, the real meaning of the goatee is yet another secret that us men have been keeping from women all these years. It's such an effective protest against feminism, no one knew about it.

So my husband's inability to grow even facial hair... does that mean I've emasculated him with my feminist ways?

waxghost- when he starts growing stubble, you know his backlash is about to take hold.

If facial hair is anti-feminist the way leg hair is "feminist", can we start calling MRAs "hairy-faced woman-haters"?

BAHAHAHA.
*ahem*
I mean, "Oh my GOD, I am sooooo outraged right now. How could I have possibly been mistaking an attack on gender equality for a strange arrangement of facial hair that only looks sexy on Johnny Depp himself?! I've got to start taking offense more easily and often."

Hmm. My only comment is that I dislike stubble because it scratches up my face when I am kissing somebody with it. Grow it out or shave it.

I have no clue how they made the leap from goatie to anti feminist. That's pretty much rediculous.

But I did want to point out that being an effeminate male in no way means that one is aligned with feminism.

I. Am. So. Confused. Am I missing something? How does facial hair have anything to do with feminism or anti-feminism????

I love my boyfriend's goatee. And he calls himself a feminist! Time has now helped me discover his undercover identity as an anti-feminist attempting to infiltrate and tear us down from the inside... I should have known this was coming when he wouldn't watch the L-Word with me!

Thank God Time tipped me off before it was too late.

Too bad there's no emoticon for eye rolling.

(rubbing my goatee) Hm... That's strange. I wear facial hair because it looks good on me. Who knew my feminist beliefs are just a sham for my inner woman-hating. (/sarcasm)

Um...at least he's a *hot* quietly defiant bastard?

I wonder if he even knows how much he hates women? haha

Damn. My girlfriend sent me this. There goes my dark secret. I expect to come home and find all my belongings on the sidewalk when I get home. I hope she takes good care of the cats.

I stopped reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon around the point where it was revealed that the protagonist's evil feminist academic ex-girlfriend hated beards because she considered them a manifestation of the patriarchy.

This is a plot by the antifeminist MSM to sow dissention between feminist women and their frequently bewhiskered male compatriots and allies.

Time Magazine is so moronic - seriously, why do people read it? And, BTW, are they calling Burt Reynolds gay? (:

MELISSA: "I. Am. So. Confused. Am I missing something? How does facial hair have anything to do with feminism or anti-feminism????"

I think you could make an argument that a rise in male facial hair could be tied to anti-feminist backlash.

One of the feminist-esque theories for why men's concern with muscularity has grown is that the lines between what constitute masculine and feminine are blurring.

In the midcentury, only men were breadwinners, fighter pilots, firemen, church elders, etc. There were clearly defined roles that signalled masculinity.

Now all of these roles are are also occupied by women. Since a major part of masculinity is anti-femininity, males need to redefine what is masculine.

There are certain things men can typically be that women can't. Men on average are more muscular, taller, and hairier.

To define and separate the genders, muscularity, height, and perhaps facial hair are becoming more important as markers of masculinity, and wome who possess these traits are strongly socially punished (i.e., there is a "glass ceiling" on the socially acceptable level of muscularity that women can display).

I'm not saying that I buy all that, but I don't think it's just crazy talk.

How Johnny Depp fits into this I don't know.

Yeah, I think there is a bit of truth to it (leaving out the part about Johnny Depp). I always associated goatees with a certain sort of homosocial one-upmanship, and remember joking in college that guys seemed to grow goatees to impress other guys with goatees rather than to attract women. It's certainly a popular style of facial hair in 90's porn, which is circumstantial but not unpersuasive to me.

To say that facial hair has anything to do with second-wave feminism is asinine. Unless "Time" is going to give me definite proof of the waxing and waning of the goatee’s fashionability related to the wearers' political ideals, I am going to call one big "BULLSHIT" on this one, guys. It is anecdotal "evidence" that takes a wild fricking leap. It WOULD be pretty sweet if we could identify sexist assholes based on their facial hair though...

I enjoy reading the wonderfully creative comments to this post, but the bottom line is, the vast majority of men past college age who have facial hair do so because we don't like shaving every frickin' day.

All this political hair! When will it end!?

And my husband has been telling me all this time that he keeps a goatee because it's one of the few things that makes him look like the 30 year old he is rather than a teenager. He's been duping me for 10 years!!!!

But seriously, this is rediculous.

I...

The only thing can think of is the traditionally evil-devil-goatee'd villians with top-hats and capes that tie women to train tracks and say "yahaar my pretty" while twiddling their tash.

Could they be anti-feminist? Did they ever actually exist in a real black and white movie?

Is tying women to train tracks anti-feminist? Or just a particularly risky kink?

Does this mean circus ring masters are misogynists?

Last I heard, beards were a sign of being gay. At least, that is what gender orientation repair therapists (i.e., "treating homosexuality") were telling their, ahem, "patients." Don't grow that beard, it's a signal of homosexual intent. Gotta present the right impression at all times, right up there with being careful to cross your legs ankle over knee, not knee over knee.

(rolls eyes)

UCLAbodyimage: Your points make sense, totally, but what confuses me is the Johnny Depp connection. Like, he's one of the least macho straight actors I can think of. SO CONFUSED.

Wow. I take some solace in the way none of the other captions make any sense either. At all. Burt Reynolds is gay? Short beards signal trailblazing but stubble is Miami-esque? Does one start out in Miami, and as the hair grows, begin to trailblaze? Sigh. I just don't get it.

Now here's a weird twist. I once heard a goatee was considered a sly suggestion of oral sex (a mouth within the muff, if you will). Now how can it be anti-feminist if it indicates a fondness for cunnilingus (in men)?

Bah! Those dudes are all sissies. Real men grow thick beards and keep them neatly trimmed, as anyone who clicks my name can testify. Such a ruggedly handsome face has to be partially concealed so as not to be a distraction to the womenfolk as their heads turn and hearts race...

No, I wasn't stoned when they took the picture.

Does anyone else find it absolutely hilarious that they're saying *eyeliner*-wearing Johnny Depp's appearance is actually a rebellion against feminism? Eye-fucking-liner! (And he looks crazy hot in it, too!)

Hmm, I have a goatee. All this time I thought I was a feminist, but I can thank Time Magazine for clearing this up.

And thank you for protesting supply-side economics, Gen. I always considered my hair style as a dissent against behavioralism in social science.

Jessica, you rock. Great catch.

Man. That is just astoundingly dumb. What's worst about it is that weasel word 'may':

Goatees may represent a backlash against feminism.

I mean -- what chain of events lead to the printing of this moronia?

I imagine an intern maybe hearing someone suggest that goatees represented a backlash against feminism. I imagine the intern, because the intern is a moron, liking the ring of it, thinking it was clever.

Then the intern is working at Time and sees this thing they're going to run about the history of facial hair and says "I want to do goatees!"

Then it occurs to the intern that the intern's supposition about goatees is just something he heard, so it's not fair to use the verb "is". So the intern uses the word "may" because that makes the statement true, regardless of whether the situation it narrates is true. Maybe the intern feels a little disappointment here because the wittiness of the idea is just a little dampened by the less assertive 'may'. What does not occur to the intern is the fact that using the word 'may' as the verb in this sentence renders it's value as a description of the world equal to that of any other sentence with the word may in it, sentences such as

"Time Magazine may be a sandwich"

"People in some countries may enjoy pain," and so on.

The depressing thing is it probably wasn't an intern who wrote that crap. It was probably an editor.

My wife shaves my neck hair...

Just sayin! :0)

I don't mind facial hair if they don't complain about my hairy legs.

oh and, I think Johnny Depp is the most feminist man in hollywood!

Gebba,

Why do you think Johnny Depp is the most feminist man in Hollywood? I don't get that by the parts he plays...

So what does my 70's big 'stache mean now?