Fake moustache

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Fake moustaches

A fake moustache or false moustache is an item of prosthetic make-up. Fake moustaches are made in a variety of ways, but usually require a form of adhesive to affix the moustache to the wearer's face. [1]

Contents

History

The use of false facial hair dates back to antiquity. In Ancient Egypt, most men were clean-shaven (real facial hair being a signifier of low social status). Pharaohs, however, often wore elaborate false metal beards, linking them with Osiris, the god of the afterlife. [2] In Ancient Greece, Aristophanes referenced false facial hair in his play Assemblywomen , in which the women of Athens disguise themselves as men using false beards. [3] :133

False facial hair has been used as a disguise for thousands of years. [3] :134 In particular, women throughout history have used false facial hair to disguise themselves as men, often to gain access to freedoms they were denied as women. [3] :136

False facial hair has also been used for theater and performance since at least the early modern period. Boy players would often wear false facial hair to appear older onstage. [4] :15

In the 19th century, fake moustaches held associations with deception and criminality. Lewis Powell, one of the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination plot, carried with him a fake moustache during his assassination attempt on William H. Seward. [5] :71 A key witness, Louis J. Weichmann, commented that he "thought no honest person had a reason to wear a false mustache". [6] :91

Despite these perceptions, false facial hair was worn for aesthetic reasons during the Victorian era, as facial hair was particularly fashionable during this period. [7]

In the mid-20th century, fake mustaches were sold commercially. The New York Herald Tribune reported in 1963 that customers were primarily "young boys for fun or to 'virilize' themselves" as well as "wives who give them to their husbands". [8]

During the 2010s, fake moustaches surged in popularity, as a humorous, ironic, and retro motif. [9]

Cultural significance

In many forms of popular media, the use of a fake moustache as an unconvincing disguise is a commonly-used trope. [10] [11] The "disguised face" emoji (🥸) features a fake moustache, as well as a pair of glasses. [12]

Drawn-on fake moustaches are deployed humorously in graffiti and other artistic means. Marcel Duchamp's artwork L.H.O.O.Q. depicts the Mona Lisa with a moustache. In the 1946 cartoon Daffy Doodles, Daffy Duck draws fake moustaches on everyone she sees. [3] :138

Many iconic moustaches in popular media have been prosthetic: Charlie Chaplin, [13] Groucho Marx, [14] and David Suchet (as Hercule Poirot) [15] all wore fake moustaches. Marx's moustache, in particular, has gained prominence as the namesake of groucho glasses, novelty glasses with a fake moustache attached. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Groucho Marx</span> American comedian (1890–1977)

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer who performed in films and vaudeville on television, radio, and the stage. He was a master of quick wit and is considered one of America's greatest comedians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beard</span> Hair that grows on the lower part of the face

A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to start growing beards, on average at the age of 21.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human physical appearance</span> Look, outward phenotype

Human physical appearance is the outward phenotype or look of human beings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moustache</span> Facial hair grown above the upper lip

A moustache is a growth of facial hair grown above the upper lip and under the nose. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Handlebar moustache</span> Facial hair style

A handlebar moustache is a moustache with particularly lengthy and upwardly curved extremities. These moustache styles are named for their resemblance to the handlebars of a bicycle. It is also known as a spaghetti moustache, because of its stereotypical association with Italian men. The Handlebar Club humorously describes the style as "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip and with graspable extremities".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disguise</span> Accessories to conceals ones identity

A disguise can be anything incognito which conceals one's identity or changes a person's physical appearance, including a wig, glasses, makeup, fake moustache, costume or other items. Camouflage is a type of disguise for people, animals and objects. Hats, glasses, changes in hair style or wigs, plastic surgery, and make-up are also used.

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The walrus moustache is characterized by whiskers that are thick, bushy, and drop over the mouth. The style resembles the whiskers of a walrus, hence the name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fu Manchu moustache</span> Style of facial hair

A Fu Manchu moustache or simply Fu Manchu, is a full, straight moustache extending from under the nose past the corners of the mouth and growing downward past the clean-shaven lips and chin in two tapered "tendrils", often extending past the jawline. An expansion of the Fu Manchu sometimes includes a third long "tendril" descending from a small patch on the chin.

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The toothbrush moustache is a style of moustache in which the sides are vertical, often approximating the width of the nose and visually resembling the bristles on a toothbrush. First becoming popular in the United States in the late 19th century, it later spread to Germany and elsewhere. Comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and Oliver Hardy popularized it, reaching its heyday during the interwar years. By the end of World War II, the association with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler made it unfashionable, leading to it being colloquially termed the "Hitler moustache".

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Hypnota is a supervillain appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as a recurring adversary of the superhero Wonder Woman. Created by writer William Moulton Marston and artist Harry G. Peter, the character debuted in 1944 in Wonder Woman #11 as a stage magician and human trafficker with powerful superhuman mind-control abilities. The gender presentation of her stage persona, Hypnota the Great, was that of an ostensibly male figure in Orientalized Middle-Eastern costume, complete with a false mustache and goatee. Though initially disguising her gender to deflect criminal suspicion, Hypnota made subsequent Golden Age appearances in her masculine stage garb; even after her supposedly "true" gender identity was revealed, she chose to present as a man – a move that might be understood in the 21st century as genderqueer. The Modern Age Hypnota has abandoned her false facial hair and is now depicted as a cisgender woman, albeit one who wears a somewhat masculine costume similar to her Golden Age look: a closed-front vest, salwar and a man's turban.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Mustache Institute</span>

The American Mustache Institute (AMI) is an advocacy organization and registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit originally based in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2013, it moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Fur Rondy has been held in Anchorage, Alaska during the late winter since 1950. It is a celebration of the time when trappers would return to the city to gather and share stories, sell their furs and antlers, and to socialize. It also commemorates the start of the Iditarod. One part of Fur Rondy is the Miners and Trappers Ball, which is a fundraiser for the Lions Club's of Alaska. The Miners and Trappers Ball has a yearly theme focused on one part of Alaskan life. The highlight of the Miners and Trappers Ball is the Mr. Fur Face beard contest. The contest is sponsored by the South central Alaska Beard and Mustache Club.

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Facial hair is hair grown on the face, usually on the chin, cheeks, and upper lip region. It is typically a secondary sex characteristic of human males. Men typically start developing facial hair in the later stages of puberty or adolescence, around fifteen years of age, and most do not finish developing a full adult beard until around eighteen or later. However, large variations can occur; boys as young as eleven have also been known to develop facial hair, and some men do not produce much facial hair at all.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Facial hair in the military</span>

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Since 1976, the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB) have maintained a strict appearance policy, specifying that players' hair must not touch their collars and that they may have mustaches but no other facial hair. The policy came from then-franchise owner George Steinbrenner, who believed that regulating his players' appearance would instill a sense of discipline. Steinbrenner began noting which players he believed needed haircuts when he took over the Yankees in 1973, but the policy was not codified until three years later. Steinbrenner's policy remains in place after his death, and has led to a number of dramatic appearance changes for players who come to the Yankees from other teams, such as Oscar Gamble, as well as pushback from players who prefer long hair and beards. In 1991, Don Mattingly was taken out of the Yankees' lineup for a day when he refused to cut his hair.

References

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  2. El Samman, Khaled (December 17, 2015). "King Tut's Beard Is Back, With Help from a Little Beeswax". National Geographic . Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Casey, Helen (2018). "A Tiny Cloak of Privilege: Facial Hair and Story Telling". In Jennifer Evans; Alun Withey (eds.). New Perspectives on the History of Facial Hair – Framing the Face. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 131–146. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-73497-2_7. ISBN   978-3-319-73496-5.
  4. Rycroft, Eleanor (2019). "Liminal Masculinity". Facial Hair and the Performance of Early Modern Masculinity. Studies in performance and early modern drama. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. pp. 65–96. doi:10.4324/9781351265041-3. ISBN   9781351265041. S2CID   243679413.
  5. Ownsbey, Betty J. (1993). Alias "Paine": Lewis Thornton Powell, the mystery man of the Lincoln conspiracy. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN   978-0-89950-874-0.
  6. Poore, Benjamin Perley (1865). The Conspiracy Trial for the Murder of the President: And the Attempt to Overthrow the Government by the Assassination of Its Principal Officers. J. E. Tilton.
  7. "Victorian beard craze inspired false 'mechanical' whiskers". phys.org. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
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  9. "All of a sudden, mustaches especially fakes are everywhere". Deseret News . February 20, 2010. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  10. "5 Baffling TV Tropes That Are Constantly Overused". Collider . April 15, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  11. "Smart chicks on screen: representing women's intellect in film and television". Choice Reviews Online . 52 (5): 186. December 18, 2014. doi:10.5860/choice.188094. ISSN   0009-4978.
  12. Hy, Mo. "Proposal for New Emoji: Disguised Face" (PDF). Unicode.
  13. Kratz, Jessie (September 2, 2022). "Facial Hair Friday: Charlie Chaplin". Pieces of History. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  14. "Groucho Marx voted America's favorite facial hair icon". Yahoo News. November 26, 2012. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  15. "Suchet: Moustache completes Poirot". Belfast Telegraph . December 20, 2010. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  16. Gary Giddins (June 18, 2000). "There Ain't No Sanity Claus". The New York Times . Retrieved August 20, 2023.