Beard gay slang
How did "beard" come to indicate "sham marriage".
syncrolecyne1
At least that is what I consider it means - when a homosexual male star marries a willing gal to squash rumors of homosexuality. Or maybe its any sham marriage for publicity purposes, I am not sure.
This thread title , which is actually about a stars facial hair, got me thinking about how that designation came into place. Its sort of odd.
Is this queer slang or just Hollywood insider speak (I only own heard it used for actors). And is it the marriage that is called a “beard” or is it the wife?
Sampiro2
A “beard” is a superficial thing that a man can complete to emphasize his masculinity (rather fancy a lot of teenagers will increase a little scraggly beard or moustache as soon as they can just to prove they have testosterone). The slang use of the word “beard” started for much the same reason: it’s a “fashion accessory to demonstrate manhood”, or “Liza with a Z” to her friends.
I have heard the term “bonnet” used for lesbians who marry, but it’s not as common.
VH1 had some newer gay slang I’d never heard, incidentally:
http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/totally_gay/series_featured_copy.jhtml
Trivia: one reaso
beard
home > slang words
Definition: (noun) a person who helps another to cover up a clandestine relationship, often by acting as a sham romantic partner
Example: After twenty years of unconsummated marriage, Jeff began to suspect his wife Jenny was more than friends with her constant companion Betsy, and he was just a beard.
Quote:
“…[Rudy Giulian's] press office started telling reporters, ‘He’s teaching Andrew how to play golf.’ Now Andrew’s vintage enough to understand—he has to be aware that his father used him as a beard.”
- Author Wayne Barrett, quoted by Judy Bachrach in Vanity Impartial (September 2007)
While a beard can be a male who covers for his cheating comrade, these days, it more often appears in stories about women who date or marry homosexual men. For sports figures, politicians and others in the general eye, being openly gay can be a serious liability, so some people go to wonderful lengths to appear straight (heterosexual).
Though times have changed, and lesbian entertainers such as Ellen DeGeneres and her partner, Portia de Rossi, have successful careers, gay male actors are rarely offered
Women pay in ‘bearded’ relationships
One definition of the word beard is found mostly in slang dictionaries, though the Modern Oxford Dictionary of English added the alternative definition a few years ago.
A beard is defined as a lady who dates, or marries, a homosexual man to provide cover for the man’s homosexuality. The term also applies to a male who does the same for a lesbian woman. Current chatter at ABC.com is filled with beard comments concerning Tom Cruise’s unused lady love. Cruise has long denied he is same-sex attracted, but the rumors persist that Cruise dates and marries beautiful women, these so-called beards, to quash speculation about his sexual orientation.
A subtext to the Jim West story is the evidence that West, who acknowledges he is a gay bloke, has also dated women, and married one. I realize some of these women. I haven’t talked to them about this, and I don’t plan to. It’s none of my business.
But it has stirred for me this whole business of the “beard phenomenon” and the damage it does to women who consider the role of beard (unwittingly or not), the men who seek it out, and our society that colludes in the deception, rather th