Appearances matter!

On Monday, so I understand, there was a bit of a ceremony in Santiago de Compostela to celebrate gender equality, part of the International Women’s Day stuff. The Presidente de la Xunta was there with several of his conselleiros. There was also, as part of the ceremony, a performance by a famous Madrid clown and balloon sculptor, a certain Willie Monroe. As part of his act he selected two “members of the public”, a man and a woman and used balloons to dress them up as their opposite gender.

This supposedly symbolic act, intended to demonstrate that men and women are equal, opened up a whole can of worms. Why was this? Well, the two “members of the public” turned out to be the conselleiro de Trabajo e Bienestar and the conselleiro de Economía e Industria. Of course, the Partido Socialista de Galicia seized the opportunity to criticise the PP and accused Beatriz Mato and Javier Guerra of preferring to play with balloons rather than deal properly with the vexed question of gender equality. It was reported that they would rather "jugar con globos en lugar de poner los pies en la tierra y afrontar una política decisiva para conseguir la igualdad de hombres y mujeres a todos los niveles".

The clown who was responsible for the cross-dressing up said that did not realise that they were important people. He recognised the President but did not know who they were. He wanted two representatives of working men and women. Most of his audience were either too young or too old and so he chose those two. Oops! It’s quite likely though that if they had refused to take part they would have been accused by somebody or other of being too serious. It just goes to show how difficult it is to have the right “look” and make the right impression.

Now, in yesterday’s Guardian newspaper I came upon a little item on beards, the style of which can indicate your status, your emotional state or all sorts of other things. Those with enough importance in their employment or in their social situation can sport with impunity the rather scruffy goatee favoured by Jeff Bridges when he appeared at the Oscars. Similar to this is what they call the charity beard, the must-have look of male celebrities such as Brad Pitt when they get involved in charitable activities.

There’s a thing called the crisis beard, aka the scandal beard, more of an “I forgot to shave” look than a true beard. This is what actors or sportsmen who have had an affair are reputed to grow as a kind of protection. Ashley Cole’s mum is said to have been worried about her son’s emotional state because he grew one of these!!

Some people are said to grow what they call an off-season beard, grown by actors who have to be clean-shaven for their role in a TV series but who want another look in between one series and the next. It’s the kind of beard some men grow on holiday, remarkably similar to the one seen gracing the chin of Prince Felipe at the end of last summer. My own son grew one while here on holiday, much to the disgust of his nearly teenage niece who declared it a thing of great ugliness.

The very expression clean-shaven has interesting connotations. One of the few men in our yoga group was bemoaning the fact that he has to shave for work. The bosses of the company where he works regard the unshaven look as rather dirty. English politicians seem to have the same idea. Clean-shaven is synonymous with trustworthy and likeable. That seems to be less of a concern here in Spain where bearded politicians abound. Bearded and be-whiskered men abound on the streets as well for that matter.

However, it should be noted that Mr. Zapatero does NOT sport facial hair!!