American culture runs rampant with both fear and reverence of baldness. Bald jokes and bald movie villains highlight the undercurrent of derision, while macho men like The Rock and Vin Diesel brand baldness as a symbol of strength and manliness. Even Anita, someone who has a healthy skepticism of beauty standards, cautions her husband John against picking at his bald spot — he could make it worse!
What both Anita and John don’t know is where these attitudes around baldness come from and what overall impact they have about how balding men feel about themselves. She brings her questions to two men who've interrogated baldness from all angles: race, sexuality, science, media, culture and lived experience.
E. Patrick Johnson is dean of the School of Communication and Annenberg University Professor at Northwestern University. He is also the author of “Scatter the Pigeons,” an essay on baldness, masculinity and Blackness. And Glen Jankowski is an assistant professor in the School of Psychology at University College Dublin. Glen’s research includes the medicalization of baldness and the history of marketing anti-baldness products.
Special thanks to Jon, Russ and Terry for contributing to this episode.
