Beard Liberation Front
12th December
One Year on from Labour’s Election defeat. Did pogonophobia play a role?
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said it is looking at claims that one reason why Labour lost the General Election on 12th December 2019 was that voters feared then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s beard.
Pogonophobia, or fear of facial hair, is a well-known condition. Sufferers often think that beard wearers are hiding something under their beards and not just the remains of their breakfast either.
The campaigners say that while the post-1945 world has seen political leaders with beards this is a rarity.
There has not been a US President with a beard since Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) and pogonophobia rules at the highest levels in US politics.
The UK has not had a Prime Minister with a beard since Lord Salisbury in 1902.
The Beard Liberation Front which campaigns for being to able to dress and appear as they want commensurate with the role people may play in society, has long had concerns that any male politician steering away from the image of clean-shaven suit wearing faces prejudice.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we take claims that Jeremy Corbyn’s defeat may have been in part due to media campaigns against his appearance seriously. It is striking how Boris Johnson invariably looks a dishevelled untidy mess, but there is little commentary about this
Leave a Reply