There is so much freedom, except when it comes to bearded men. A shaven, shiny chin has taken over the reading community, as well as other fandoms like anime and dramas. However, other characters with beards are huge hits.
Cosplaying Has Become Harder
I was talking to my husband about potential cosplays for an upcoming convention in September and DSNX26 (see you there!). However, coming up with characters for my husband was more than difficult as he has been growing his beard over the past 4 years. Needless to say, his beard is long and the effort put into it makes it hard to find characters to cosplay.
This got us thinking: I can’t think of many characters with beards that are not big motion pictures. Anime is mainly clean shaven unless you’re an old, wise man/wizard or teacher. But I noticed this fell into the reading world too.
With the asian culture of cosmere, almost all the male characters are clean shaven. In red rising, unless you’re an obsidian, you are clean shaven. Nobody in Jade City, likely due to culture. Sarah J Mass books, Six of Crows, The Lunar Chronicals, and An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir: all of these do not have bearded characters.
The Bearded Exception
To say almost all characters don’t have beards, you might be screaming “John Gwynne”. But that’s also culturally influenced because Vikings are one of the only exceptions that I see in fantasy books.
Vikings are well known to be bearded, and long hair in general. They are usually accompanied by braids and buns to manage all the hair. So you are very likely to see it in John Gwynne’s series.
There has to be more right? There is, and it’s almost on the opposite end of viking and that would be: bald.
Old wizards, monks, wise men and teachers usually are seen to have beards, accompanied by a shiny head like characters in Will of the Many.
Dwarf characters are also exponentially hairy like in Tolkien’s stories. The classic wizards also have long beards. This is also common in Harry Potter.
Westerns. Usually in westerns, cowboys are likely to have beards because shaving was more impractical than not. Lack of running water is a detail that plays into this decision.
Big Motion Picture Influences
Here is where it gets interesting. Big motion pictures have been adopting characters with notable facial hair. It may not be a beard, but some sort of facial hair. Top Gun’s mustache, Jack Sparrow’s pirate beard, Pedro Pascal, Clint Eastwood, Tony Stark, Wolverine, Obi-wan, Chuck Norris, Santa, the list continues.
So why has this not translated in popularity into books?
For the most part in books and movies, characters that are usually clean shaven and grow beards, are put into a position where shaving is either impractical at that time or having a lack of access. For example, Darrow at the beginning of Morning Star… You probably hate me for reminding you, right?
Likely these translations fall out due to culture and research authors have put into their writing. Brandon Sanderson spent time in Korea, where he learned a lot about asian culture and their habits and social influences.
Where is this bias coming from?
Here is a thought though, Male protagonists are clean shaven, even in most of the stories that I have listed above (aside from John Gwynne because of the Viking culture).
Not all of these books are directed toward female readers or romance.
Also a lot of these male authors have beards??? Hello?
Where do you find exceptions? Can you list a few of those exceptions? Let me know!
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