Dwarven Women: Beards or no Beards?

[Sejs]

the image I've always had for the whole dwarven women/beards issue was most dwarven women have the ability to grow a beard if they so choose, but most dont choose to grow one. Though a nicely trimmed jawline hugger, or goatee and moustache combo can look quite fetching on the right lass, most don't go for the long-waist length-and braided look that the men tend towards.

*nod*

 

[Dagger75]

Holy bearded Dwarven women Batman....

This debate was going on back in the 1e days of AD&D. I believe they came to same conclusions, some dwarf chikcs have beards, some don't. Its up to the player.


Now to hijack the thread.....

Can Elves have beards? Drow are pictured with them sometimes, namely the 1e Fiend Folio.

 

[acorania]

According to FR3E:

"Some female dwarves of Faerun can grow beards, too, often passing as males among nondwarves of the surface lands. Dwarven women may choose to shave their beards to match human-style expectations of beauty, while others glory in luxurious plaited beards that match their hair or wear sharply cut goatees."

I vaguely remember Sean K. Reynolds talking about this prior to the release of the book. If I remember correctly (questionable) they wanted to kind of give people a choice. Your character can always shave (off camera, so to speak), but if you want your female dwarf to have a beard and the norm is they don't... well, you're stuck aren't you. So, this seems like a good compromise.

Sean Mahoney
acorania

 

[David Argall]

big beards

This is an issue where compromise is not wise. Dwarven women should be not bearded, or should be heavily bearded. A dwarf with a short beard is bald and a wimp. That beard is a source of pride and should be as huge as possible. And that is true for both sexes. Those ancients who happen to have a copy of A1, the 1st module in the original Slavers adventurers, will be able to show you a proper bearded female dwarf looks like.

I vote for bearded female dwarves myself, but can live with no beards. Crummy little sorta beards are a different story. Forget such nonsense that would be rejected by any dwarf.

 

[Douane]

I'm very sorry for all the Nay-sayers , but this point was already cleared up a long time ago. Col_Pladoh, our resident Sage/authority on these matters, posted the following on a previous incarnation of these boards (03-29-2001):

"Greetz!
In the spirit of posting topics of meaningful sort that will generate positive and useful responses, I just wanted to say that there can no longer be any doubt that all female dwarves, PCs included, have beards. Nowhere in the new D&D core rules does it state anything to the contrary.

So, who has illustrations of their female dwarf PC to show off here?

Gary"



Congratulations to all the ladies concerned!

Folkert

 

[I'm A Banana]

According to the core rules: "dwarven men value their beards..." (PHB, Pg. 14), implying that dwarven women are beardless. Also, the illustration shows dwarven women as beardless. Previous editions/campaign settings have said that dwarves have had beards.

It really depends.

Biologically, what causes facial hair is largely related to chemicals and such in the blood at puberty -- chemicals such as Testosterone, for instance.

So if dwarven women have full on beards, it implies that they're as laden with typically male juices as, say, female hyenas (who even have penises). In this situation, the women are probably *not* the typical matronly types, being as strong and aggressive and warlike as the males. They're aggressive, leading clans and dominating males. In fact, it can be largely difficult to tell the difference...there's little to no gender biases or restrictions at all. Males and females are largely the same thing -- heck, the courting process could be the Prachett-esque practice of finding out which gender the other is, and homosexuality wouldn't be that rare or that obvious.

This leads, effectively, to all dwarves being a drawn out charactictature of a stereotype. They're aggressive, conformist, and highly regimented -- too lawful to even divide themselves between gendes. They are united -- male and female are largely considerations of those who can make babies and those who can't.

It could even become a bit of a comparison with elves -- dwarves being as aggressive and strong as the elves are weak and timid. If dwarves have too much man-juices, maybe elves have too much women-juices, they are too much a bad stereotype of a female, all love and nurture without spine or adherence. The elves are as submissive and unassertive, passive. The dwarves are aggressive and tough. The dwarves may be even almost heartless and mechanical as the elves are nurturing and caring. You could go with an entire theme of Law = Man, Chaos = Women, and strongly divide things on gender lines, making it a strong theme of your game world.

I prefer to compare the elves to orcs, myself, so I leave the dwarven women beardless. It makes the dwarves less fantastic and more human, more understandable. It also allows them to be more understandably "conservative," with well-defined gender roles and a strong sense of family and stereotype. It makes them, IMHO, more relatable to the tradition and fundamentalism, less open to new things and experiences, and more understandably insular.

It's really up to you. I like my dwarven women beardless, myself.

 

[Ravellion]

Beards.

Elwood, the Dwarf in the D&D movie says he prefers his women with a good beard to hold on to.

(Teehee! I won't delete this message either... not until I wake up tomorrow and my hangover is gone! Quoting the D&D movie as an official source... I'll ROFLMAO in the morning!)

Seriously though... beards.

Rav

 

[shilsen]

One more vote for beards on female dwarves. Gary wants beards. Tolkien's dwarven females had beards. Pratchett (who has one of the best takes on dwarven society that I've read in fantasy) has beards. There's just something sexy about a woman with golden, flowing locks below her chin

 

[Kitha]

Personally...

... I think Dwarven women should have beards. Or at least be required to shave should they want to be beardless. In my imagination they don't have full, flowing beards like male dwarves but could easily get an impressive little goatie going.

I know my Dwarven fighter likes his women to have a bit of stubble going on...

 

[Xarlen]

Beards for the ladies!

First of all, I'd note that y'know, you don't *have* to be attracted to every demi-human species. The fact that dwarven women have beards is a quirk that seperates them from any others, and thus A) Makes them more exotic,, and B) It's a species thing, making them destinct vs some other human or demihuman female species. Why do they have to be more human? They're DWARVES. Why must we make them just short, squat humans?

Second, I wouldn't really call that too attractive myself, but hey, they're dwarves. Dwarven women remind me of the common stereotypical depiction of old eastern European women, all squished up and wrinkly and stout (Silly, I know).

Now, on a more Serious note, I could see that dwarven women who shave their beards could be a 'fad' or a trend. Sort've like in the 60s where women burned their bras, dwarven women who shave could be going against social norms of the 'stay at home dwarf', urging to get out of the clan hold and do the men-folk's work too (Even though in dwarven society, I believe that the Matron of the clan has serious power over everyone). So you can have your traditionalists, and then your 'newer' dwarves.

Often with the menfolk, their beards are almost to their belts, or pretty dang big. Women could have theirs just hanging from their chin, or the mustache-and-goatee look.