Last night I saw this hillarious video about facial hair and just had to comment on this. Although it was written for a specific audience, the sentiment and premise remain constant with my overarching theme that beards don't make men men.
About a year ago I shaved off the goatie I'd grown after finishing college at the behest of the State of Nevada which disproved of it. It took my supervisor over a week to notice what exactly I changed about my appearance. However, people noticed very quickly when I had one and their reactions clustered in similar territory.
Hypothesis
I grew the beard as part of an experiment (sorry- scientist) to see what effect it would exert on people I met. I hypothesized that people would be judgmental of me and make negative assumptions based on the beard before ever getting to know the man underneath (aside from the year test period, I've been clean-shaven all of my life). My null hypothesis was that it wouldn't affect people's opinions at all. For experimentation, I applied for several jobs that I didn't care if I got or not (they weren't better than my current job) and I asked 62 different girls out for drinks (picked at random times and places although there was some bias since I wanted to ask girls out to whom I was attracted and not simply random girls).
Experimental Procedure
When I went in for interviews, my hair and beard were neatly trimmed, and I wore my finest vestiments (charcoal single-breasted suit with white shirt and tie). I likewise groomed myself for religious functions. For invitational and extra-vocational activities, I dressed well but wore the beard. Girls were invited to go out with me whenever the opportunity presented itself, so sometimes that meant I was on the way home from work (and rather dirty sometimes), or not spectacularly dressed, or covered in dog hair after a vet trip, but I could not control those variables without sacrificing the asking opportunity. Only two of the girls I asked were girls I met on occasion of my vocational pursuits.
Experimental Results
Only one job interview (the job I currently hold with the State of Nevada) didn't seem bothered by the beard. Even the PPL, although many people had 'staches, suggested I shave. The highway patrol (where again a Sgt wore a 'stache) didn't seem to like it. (I think there were other variables at work here like the fact that I have an MS in Biochemistry and not a BS in Criminal Justice.) Of the 62 girls I asked out, only two answered in the affirmative, and they were both girls with whom I interacted as a function of my vocational activities (see above). Only one of those two continued to talk with me two weeks after our date, but I have not had a real conversation with her for the last 8 months.
I was introduced by a friend of mine to a person of influence in our ecclesiastical community who gazed down at me and said, "Oh, you're that Thomas". Condescension oozed from his lips.
Conclusions
Although perhaps not statistically significant (after all, how many eligible girls were there in the metropolitan area whom I might have asked out?) and since there were exclusionary bias in the selection of girls to ask out (but then again who asks out girls to whom they are not attracted?), the data seemed to indicate one thing very clearly- there was sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis that the 'stache exerted no effect on people's opinions of me.
By my reckoning, the goatie produced largely negative results. It certainly in and of itself generated no positive ones. I suspect the two girls with whom I had dates dated me less for the fact that the goatie didn't bother them and more to point that they knew who I was from interacting with me and saw through the beard on that account.
There is no such thing as a sexy 'stache for the girls in which I express interest. A coworker of mine suggested I buy a motorcycle, as that helped him attract girls, to whit I replied I cared little to attract the type of girls that kind of visibility promised. The girl with whom I made the most progress intimated that she liked men with facial hair, but she and her boyfriend (who is clean-shaven) are expecting their first child now, so I know that's not the whole story.
There is nothing wrong with a beard. It changed nothing of the person that I am. In point of fact, since shaving, I have had equally low ROI in the dating department although I do expect a change of vocation in the near future. Without shaving, I know I'd never get that job. My parents like me better without one, but they interestingly enough never criticized me for having one, only mentioned that it might help me get a better job if I shaved.
The bottom line is a line I heard from Dr. Seuss years ago when I was excised from an online community for my defiance of convention: "Be who you are and say what you think, for those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind". Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson, the real one, said, "It is necessary for the happiness of man that he be true to himself." If you are true to who you really are, you can be happy, no matter what other people think, even in Utah.
About a year ago I shaved off the goatie I'd grown after finishing college at the behest of the State of Nevada which disproved of it. It took my supervisor over a week to notice what exactly I changed about my appearance. However, people noticed very quickly when I had one and their reactions clustered in similar territory.
Hypothesis
I grew the beard as part of an experiment (sorry- scientist) to see what effect it would exert on people I met. I hypothesized that people would be judgmental of me and make negative assumptions based on the beard before ever getting to know the man underneath (aside from the year test period, I've been clean-shaven all of my life). My null hypothesis was that it wouldn't affect people's opinions at all. For experimentation, I applied for several jobs that I didn't care if I got or not (they weren't better than my current job) and I asked 62 different girls out for drinks (picked at random times and places although there was some bias since I wanted to ask girls out to whom I was attracted and not simply random girls).
Experimental Procedure
When I went in for interviews, my hair and beard were neatly trimmed, and I wore my finest vestiments (charcoal single-breasted suit with white shirt and tie). I likewise groomed myself for religious functions. For invitational and extra-vocational activities, I dressed well but wore the beard. Girls were invited to go out with me whenever the opportunity presented itself, so sometimes that meant I was on the way home from work (and rather dirty sometimes), or not spectacularly dressed, or covered in dog hair after a vet trip, but I could not control those variables without sacrificing the asking opportunity. Only two of the girls I asked were girls I met on occasion of my vocational pursuits.
Experimental Results
Only one job interview (the job I currently hold with the State of Nevada) didn't seem bothered by the beard. Even the PPL, although many people had 'staches, suggested I shave. The highway patrol (where again a Sgt wore a 'stache) didn't seem to like it. (I think there were other variables at work here like the fact that I have an MS in Biochemistry and not a BS in Criminal Justice.) Of the 62 girls I asked out, only two answered in the affirmative, and they were both girls with whom I interacted as a function of my vocational activities (see above). Only one of those two continued to talk with me two weeks after our date, but I have not had a real conversation with her for the last 8 months.
I was introduced by a friend of mine to a person of influence in our ecclesiastical community who gazed down at me and said, "Oh, you're that Thomas". Condescension oozed from his lips.
Conclusions
Although perhaps not statistically significant (after all, how many eligible girls were there in the metropolitan area whom I might have asked out?) and since there were exclusionary bias in the selection of girls to ask out (but then again who asks out girls to whom they are not attracted?), the data seemed to indicate one thing very clearly- there was sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis that the 'stache exerted no effect on people's opinions of me.
By my reckoning, the goatie produced largely negative results. It certainly in and of itself generated no positive ones. I suspect the two girls with whom I had dates dated me less for the fact that the goatie didn't bother them and more to point that they knew who I was from interacting with me and saw through the beard on that account.
There is no such thing as a sexy 'stache for the girls in which I express interest. A coworker of mine suggested I buy a motorcycle, as that helped him attract girls, to whit I replied I cared little to attract the type of girls that kind of visibility promised. The girl with whom I made the most progress intimated that she liked men with facial hair, but she and her boyfriend (who is clean-shaven) are expecting their first child now, so I know that's not the whole story.
There is nothing wrong with a beard. It changed nothing of the person that I am. In point of fact, since shaving, I have had equally low ROI in the dating department although I do expect a change of vocation in the near future. Without shaving, I know I'd never get that job. My parents like me better without one, but they interestingly enough never criticized me for having one, only mentioned that it might help me get a better job if I shaved.
The bottom line is a line I heard from Dr. Seuss years ago when I was excised from an online community for my defiance of convention: "Be who you are and say what you think, for those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind". Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson, the real one, said, "It is necessary for the happiness of man that he be true to himself." If you are true to who you really are, you can be happy, no matter what other people think, even in Utah.
2 comments:
I love that quote from Dr. Seuss.
In your experiment, did you specify what type of drinks were offered? What about the age and ethnic background of the girls?
I never really got around to going out for drinks with most of them, so it was more the general cliche "would you like to have a drink?" that was offhandedly rejected. One of them went with me to Sonic.
As to age and ethnicity, since I don't know the age of people I've just met, I can only comment as to the age of those who accepted the invitation. One of them was a year elder, and the other was three years my elder. The former was of mixed race (African-Caucasian) and the other was largely Scandanavian like myself. The rest I do not recall, but by and large I would say they were Caucasian, some with Hispanic origin.
Girls were not selected/deselected for age or race, although I do have a bias against girls who are extremely younger than myself (like around 20 years old).
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