Notches. (re)marks on the history of sexuality (Web)

Notches is showcasing some of its publications that reflect upon the significance of sex, sexuality, and the bearded face. Taken together, these four posts illuminate the powerful meanings associated with facial hair, its employment in policing gender and sexuality, and how it fits into broader national and political questions that go far beyond a single bearded face.

Moustaches, beards, and male facial hair are not inherently sexual, but are sexualised because of their association with the onset of sexual maturity in men, because of their use in coding sexual desires and categories, and because of their role in identifying gender and sexual aberration. Facial hair can be both ‘manly’ and ‘effeminate’, ‘real’ and ‘false’, and, as a recent conference on the history of facial hair has shown, tied up with all manner of political, economic, social, cultural and sexual discourses. Read more … (Web)

• Julia Laite, Beards, Real Men, and Poseurs: male sexuality and fashion since around 1900 (Link)
• Justin Bengry, The Erotics of Shaving in Victorian Britain (Link)
• T J Tallie, Hirsute Phoenix: Conchita Wurst, Beards, and the Politics of Sexuality (Link)
• Lukasz Szulc, Conchita’s Europe: Eurovision, homonationalism and the politics of sexuality (Link)