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All dwarves have beards

133 (41.7%)

Males bearded; females beardless (default setting)

163 (51.1%)

Females bearded; males beardless

14 (4.4%)

All dwarves beardless (horrors!)

9 (2.8%)

Total Members Voted: 319

[Africa]

I remember before 2010 came out, there was a thread or two debating whether or not female dwarves had beards. I remember seeing it fairly evenly divided. Anyway, the new version has them beardless by default. As a dedicated she-bearder, I find this quite unsettling. Luckily, the raws have a ready-made option to add beards; just use "find" to locate the part where it says whether males or females each have beards, and add brackets right under where it says to.

Anyway, I was just curious how things break up as to beard status of lady dwarves. See attached poll.

Also, are dwarf babies born with beards? I'm not good enough at trawling through the raws to find out.

[NW_Kohaku]

I don't see a poll, but babies are born with beards and facial features.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My females don't have beards, although I did make them have sideburns as a bit of a compromise.  I like to think of them as letting their sideburns growing long, and braiding them.

edit: nevermind, you added the poll while I was posting.

[Africa]

You have no idea how much the idea of little newborn dwarfbabies with lush beards warms my heart.

[Cotes]

Eh, I don't care too much. I mean, it's a bit weird to have females with beards, but on the other hand that would be just general weirdness and humor not out of place in DF.

I voted beardless though, as it is default and I go with what the author wants for their fictional race.

[Diablous]

I voted for beardless females.

[Africa]

Are there really two people whose females do have beards but males do not?

[Cotes]

Are there really two people whose females do have beards but males do not?

This is the internet.

[Diablous]

Are there really two people whose females do have beards but males do not?

They could be joking.

[NW_Kohaku]

Are there really two people whose females do have beards but males do not?

Why do you make an option in the poll to say a silly answer, and get surprised when people actually choose the silly answer?

Anyway, I'm generally annoyed by this sort of fight between how some people want to draw female dwarves (sexy women who happen to be short), and how others basically want male dwarves with giant boobs and skimpier (if any) clothing.

I always liked the way the female dwarf in the second chapter of the D&D 3rd ed was drawn - broad-shouldered, broad-faced, and fairly matronly, but not UGLY, nor something obviously meant to be a sex object.

[Christes]

You might find the image of bearded females ugly, but it really should be up to the dwarves, no?

[Africa]

Are there really two people whose females do have beards but males do not?

Why do you make an option in the poll to say a silly answer, and get surprised when people actually choose the silly answer?

I was including all the possible configurations. Still, I'd be quite surprised if people actually had that setting (as opposed to picking the poll just as a joke, or because they misread/misclicked)

As for the rest of the post, it could be that I'm influenced by Discworld, but I picture dwarves as being basically androgynous. Males and females are both equally short, stocky, sturdy and bearded. There's no real visual way to distinguish between them. Although I don't imagine them as being unable to tell each others' gender as in Discworld, I imagine elves and humans might have some problems with it (and with pronouns). Speaking of pronouns, I wonder if the language of such a species would use gender-distinguishing pronouns in ordinary speech, or if they would have just one neutral pronoun and then special, unusual words for when you had to refer to someone in third person and their gender was relevant to the conversation (i.e. discussing parenthood or romantic relations)

[Shrugging Khan]

I know enough females with beard growth stronger than mine. Human ones, mind you. Thank wax and photoshop that your ideals of beauty can safely (but superficially) call those "exceptions".

For dwarves: I'd at the most differentiated argue that females ought to be SLIGHTLY less hairy overall than their male counterparts. Slightly. Not at all necessarily fundamentally.

[Creamcorn]

Personally when it comes to this topic, I say that it's fifty-fifty to how many Ms. Urists have beards. I then conclude that some can grow the stuff and others cannot; the civilization (or my mind, whatever) will then randomly deem either one as beautiful or not per civilization of course. As for the hair in general, well that's dwarven genetics question to answer.

As for the figure of the dwarfetes, it's either modestly corpulent, plump or androgynous when compared to the males; you all should know, broad shoulders and muscular, etc.

[DaPatman]

Not only are my female dwarves bearded (I've always liked the Discworld's idea of the dwarven mating ritual comprising mostly of the paarticipants subtly trying to work out each other's gender), my male elves are beardless. I like to think that in my worlds, the first female dwarf stole the first male elf's beard for herself.

[Stove]

I figure that since Dwarven society in DF has almost no gender roles at all (the only difference between males and females is that females give birth and nurse infants), and it's generally agreed that beards are a source of pride for Dwarves, it wouldn't make sense for DF's female dwarves to be beardless.
If female dwarves are beardless, then either beards are /not/ a source of pride and have no cultural significance to dwarves whatsoever (which must be the case in unmodded DF currently), or Dwarven society must be patriarchal, since only males are able to grow beards.

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Antonia