I think AK mostly hit it on beards. I would add that, as a distinctly masculine feature, getting people to see it as a "fashion" rather than a natural growth (after all, the
unnatural act is shaving) is just chipping away at the differences between men and women, working on the development of a society that no longer sees any difference at all. "
Vive la difference" becomes "sexism".
Also of note, in Orthodox culture the clergy pretty much always wears beards - I think you will only find beardless priests in America, and it's a result of not having an Orthodox heritage (Orthodoxy in the US is quite young, hardly 200 years old and has really seen growth only in the last few decades). In a hundred years or so, likely the beard will make a full clerical comeback in America as well, as that heritage develops.
Anything that establishes that we
are different is good to me.
"Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one."
Bill "The Blizzard" Hingest - That Hideous Strength