The Latin word imberbis came to Spanish as imberbe . It is an adjective that is used to describe someone who has not yet grown a beard .
According to this definition, children , adolescents and young people who, for reasons of development, do not have a beard, are beardless. The concept is also used symbolically to refer to someone who lacks experience .
For example: “I just saw a beardless person painting a monument with a spray can” , “Three beardless people were trying to explain to me how I have to carry out my work” , “We need someone qualified to preside over the company, not just any beardless person” .
The idea of beardless usually appears in chronicles and journalistic stories to name young individuals . Many times it allows us to emphasize that youth, especially if the subjects in question achieve achievements that are associated with older people.
Let's take the case of a 17-year-old soccer player who, in the final of a tournament, scores three goals and gives his team the victory. All his teammates and rivals are older, which is why the journalists' notes highlight that a beardless player was decisive in the process of the game and surprised by making a difference.
Human beings live subject to a large number of social impositions, most of which we do not consciously perceive even though they accompany us and condition us daily. Normally , male individuals are instilled with the need to exhibit their physical strength, and female individuals are taught their sweetness, among other qualities. They teach us that "man must protect woman", among other things that little by little are being left in the archives of prehistory.
Although all races do not have the same physical characteristics, men tend to have much more hair than women. This is considered a symbol of manhood ; That is, the more body hair, the greater masculinity. What about the rest of the men? Technically we have the term beardless to describe both this situation and the lack of a beard in an adult. However, if we resort to beardless , it can take on the character of an insult, precisely because the recipient remembers that it does not meet society's expectations.
Now, the pressures do not begin in adulthood, but invade us from the womb itself. Families who buy light blue or pink clothes for their newborn babies, depending on whether they are male or female, respectively, take the first step towards machismo even before their child can open his eyes. In this way, a boy of a few years of age feels the pressure to become a man, something that is also fueled by typical "boy" toys, such as a soccer ball, strollers and little soldiers.
This brings us once again to the term in question: if a teenager is called beardless, it probably bothers him because he feels the weight of not yet being a man, that goal that was so forcefully imposed on him at birth. Additionally, you may be afraid of never getting it, since, as mentioned in a previous paragraph, not everyone has the same amount of facial hair .
In Argentina , the term is associated with a historical episode. In a speech he gave on May 1, 1974 in the Plaza de Mayo , President Juan Domingo Perón described the members of the Montoneros group as “beardless,” who chanted slogans with complaints toward the political leader. Finally the members of Montoneros left the square while Perón continued speaking from the balcony of the Government House .