[Avodah] Why are beards considers so choshuv?

[Daniel Israel]

Quoting T613K at aol.com:
> 3.  Shaving off the beard is considered a denial and denigration of  one's
> masculinity -- it is a sort of "feminizing" thing to do, making one's face
> look more womanly and less manly, so that's one reason it's frowned upon in
> certain frum circles.

Is this a sociological observation about frum attitudes, or do you  
have a source for this being a Torah POV?  (In the former case, I'm  
not sure I agree with you- at least I have never observed that  
particular reaction.)

-- 
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu