I say this is my face. I'm told it's not.

[joesteph]

I have a full beard, something I grew on-and-off from my college years until 1990, when I kept it. There are photos of me with my boys in the KF Photo Album, mostly under Dojo photos.

I teach psychology on the high school level in an all-girls academy. As the periods are so long (80 minutes; "block" scheduling), I allow a tangental discussion, just to give a break. In both my psychology classes this past school year, one of the discussions was my face--and beard.

I was told by the most active participants that my face was the one beneath the beard; my face, to them, had a beard, not that my face is one with a beard as an integral part. I countered that this is my face; without the beard, it wouldn't be my face. It hinged on whether my beard is a genuine part of my face or an appearance factor only, indispensible or not to be my "true" face.

Only one student out of two classes spoke to say that if this is what I believe my face to be, then this is my face.

What do you think?

[GeoGiant]

If my mental picture of you has a beard then, in my mind, its your face.

[mindsedgeblade]

I think it's all psycho babble and doesn't matter at all.

Whether or not you have a beard, it (the face and beard) is still attached to the same personality and body. Might throw people off at first if you change something, but they'll get used to it. You could ask the same question of someone with colored contacts or eyeglasses. And my answer is still: who cares? They're the same person with or without.

[sensei8]

Does the beard define you...OR...does your face define you? My beard, whether I have one or not at that moment, is just a thing! Yet, I, because of my beard, depending on whether it's neatly kept or not, becomes unwillingly subjective to stereotyping, therefore, I'm stereotyped based on appearance and the lack thereof.

I wear glasses whenever I read, but, whenever I meet someone while I'm reading, and I take my reading glasses off to engage this person in a conversation, that person is momentarily taken aback because they assumed I needed my glasses all of the time.

So, it's not who I am that defines me, no, it's what I do, or don't do, that defines me.

[joesteph]

Does the beard define you...OR...does your face define you?

I feel that the beard is an integral part of my face; its absence would make it so that it is not my face any longer, but an "altered" one.

[Dobie1979]

Well, to lighten up the discussion. I live in Michigan where the winters can be cold. When I grow my beard. It keeps the wind off it. It dosen't make me who I am, it just makes me warmer.

Though, is it strange when you know someone who has long hair or a beard and they cut it.

[joesteph]

Though, is it strange when you know someone who has long hair or a beard and they cut it.

It's like a "different" or "new" face . . . Where did the "old" one go? And our faces are, to me, the most identifiable physical aspect we have.

[joesteph]

I think it's all psycho babble and doesn't matter at all.

My point when I discuss this with my students is that it matters to me.

Might throw people off at first if you change something, but they'll get used to it.

It would throw me off, because my face would be "gone." If I get used to it, I'm getting used to a "different" face, not my "real" one. The beard, to me, doesn't mask my face; it isn't a mask at all. Without it, my face would be incomplete.

[isshinryu5toforever]

It's about your perception of yourself. I can't remember which philosopher described each person as being a mirror that reflects an image of you back to yourself, which helps create a construct of the real you. You can't actually see yourself, so you have to rely on what others see. When you have a beard and then shave it, the reflection is altered, which creates a new you.

Think about Rorschach from the movie Watchmen. His face is the mask. When the mask is removed, he no longer has a face. A face exists, but it's not HIS face. He has worn the mask for so long that every reflection of self he has gotten from other people has included the mask. Therefore, the mask is his face in both his own eyes and society's eyes.

[Rateh]

Hmm...

Well, I have worn my hair in a pony tail at the nape of my neck for 14 years. My littlest sister is 14 years old. Recently I had a hair cut and the lady cut it too short, so I can no longer wear it in my accustomed manner. This is very disconcerting to my sister, as I no longer look like myself to her. In all her life my hair as been the same, so wearing it differently I am no longer "me".