Man is a beast with hairs, as Claude Gudin said in A Natural History of Hair (2007). Human has 3 to 5 million hairs on the whole body, certainly not all visible, in other words more hairy follicles than most other primates.
Hair, beard, moustache, hairs, fleece, fur, coat, symbolism of hair is complicated. Evocation of animality, hair stimulates the desire, or causes dislike. Erotic fantasy celebrated by poets and painters, it was censured in movies and Japanese comics, before being today denied by the Western pornography which values full waxing. Long hair and natural hairiness – symbols of the hippie period – gave place to the sanitary/hygienic diktat of shaven chin and hairless body. Secondary sexual aspect, often interpreted as a gender mark, male or female, hair does not lend itself at least to all the transgressions of “genderfuck”.
The electronic journal Appearance(s) devotes a special issue “Of all hairs” to the question of hairiness and head of hair. The journal collects, in an interdisciplinary perspective, any proposal of articles dealing with these subjects of mental and iconographical representations. The following topics are proposed:
- - Uses, semiotics and symbolic
- - Hair(s) and gender
- - Pilosity/Hairiness in iconographical productions
- - Imaginaries and fantasies
- - Ornaments and aesthetics of the body
- - Production and consummation (depilatories and cosmetics)
Apparence(s) is an electronic journal hosted by Revue.org (http://apparences.revues.org)
Please submit your proposal before October 30th, to isabelle.paresys@univ-lille3.fr and to florence.tamagne@univ-lille3.fr.
See how to submit on the website of the journal: http://apparences.revues.org/index127.html
