Men with shaved heads are perceived to be more masculine
online.wsj.com
online.wsj.com
My goal is to get to become so cynical that I only believe what I read in Dr. Seuss books.
"One theory, advanced by Muscarella and Cunningham, suggests baldness came about in males through sexual selection as an enhanced signal of aging and social maturity, whereby aggression and risk-taking decrease and nurturing behaviours increase."
"A study done among South Koreans has shown most people rate balding men as less attractive, if these results generalize to other cultures, any mating benefit must target purely maternal instincts."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgenic_alopecia
So maybe it's because you're ugly but domestic and perceived to be no real threat. Or maybe human nature is more then just animal instinct. Maybe I just wanted to go nananana and call you ugly while I ran my fingers through my head of hair. Maybe it's all of these things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaved_Head
It unfortunately only says a little regarding virility.
It does however link to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichophilia which has the statement "Hair does not in itself have any intrinsic sexual value other than the attributes given to it by individuals in a cultural context." I would suspect baldness (shaved or natural) would be similarly linked entirely to cultural contexts. For instance I doubt most people see Buddhist monks as especially virile.
Wikipedia is a wiki, not the only wiki. That's why it's called Wikipedia; it's a wiki based encyclopedia. Calling it "wiki" is like calling Encyclopedia Brittanica "encyclopedia" for short. It makes no sense. Would you say "ya well, encyclopedia doesn't have a head shaving article"? No, you would say "Encyclopedia Brittanica" or "the encyclopedia" (if one was clear from context) or "my encyclopedia".
Walter White by the end of season 4 - shaved head and a goatee - large and in charge.
Although I'm struggling to think of many more examples of hairless protagonists outside Star Trek.
I also would have accepted the nerdier answer, which is that in the ST universe, humanity went through a whole genetic engineering craze (in the '90s!) that resulted in Khan and a lot of other madness. So we kind of avoided it after that, and just went au naturel with our gene pool.
The franchise actually did make a few attempts to circle back on this topic, usually as a convenient way of explaining why humans in the 24th century aren't all perfectly fit, hyperintelligent, post-Singularity badasses. Genetic engineering had become a taboo. This was highlighted in a DS9 episode, where Julian Bashir was hiding the fact that his parents GE'd his intelligence, coordination, etc. It was illegal, and he was worried he'd be kicked out of Starfleet.
Of course, it could just be that I became more comfortable and confident after it.
That it does look better probably helped with your comfort level and confidence.
What I want to know though is when will the US have a bald president? I always thought good hair was a pre-requisite.
Eisenhower is probably the closest we've come to a bald president.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EisenhowerChiefofStaffPort...
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1675631,00....
As I understand it, a lot of the population didn't even know Roosevelt was in a wheelchair, something that would be impossible today.
Or perhaps I'm just envious to those who can tolerate themselves as bald, and don't look like eggs. :)
So initially it was about subverting something that was wildly seen as a mark of weakness and abuse. He said there were article and letters questioning why young men would allow themselves to appear like this, and it was at the time in no way seen as masculine.
In fact, I have dreadlocks and people like it, because I look healthy and self confident. I think it's even better than bald head. In XXI century agression is no longer advantage - charisma and inteligence are much more efficient these days.
However, a bit of masculine look may help women, they seem to look very atractive with no hair. Maybe not every woman, but I know women that looks good with no hair.
Also see double edged razors.
I haven't shaved since May, and now that bead-head is once more a big problem, I might shave before the fall temps get too cold.
So all in all, it looks like responding to male pattern baldness by shaving one's head does not correlate especially well with becoming a dictator.
But then again, correlation is not causation, and that goes both ways.
Or is it just a generic list of people that Americans are told "are bad persons", because some are indeed dictators and others just stand in the way of the foreign exploitation of third world country and it's natural resources?
It's just uncomfortable for people to see their _elected_ leader demonized along with Hitler and mass murderers, especially if said leaders just concern themselves with their own, sovereign country, business.
Doubly so in a region where foreign invasion and intervention has started many dictatorships and cost many casualties.
It's not Chavez that did this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/29/guatemala-experimen...
Or this: http://www.alternet.org/world/us-funded-death-squads-el-salv...