Сақалды әйелдер: тарих, мәдениет және эволюциялық көзқарас

Woman with naturally occurring facial hair

the drag performer known as the bearded lady

A bearded lady (or bearded woman) is a woman with a naturally occurring beard normally due to the condition known as hirsutism or hypertrichosis. Hypertrichosis causes people of either sex to develop excess hair over their entire body (including the face), while hirsutism is restricted to females and only causes excessive hair growth in the nine body areas mentioned by Ferriman and Gallwey.

Charles Darwin's ideas on sexual selection that influenced the perception of women with excess facial hair were applied differently across race. Women of color who had excess facial hair were actually perceived as evidence of human's evolution from apes, whereas white women with excess facial hair were perceived as diseased. A beard on a white woman challenged her sex and medical condition, whereas a beard on women of color challenged her species.

Notable examples were the famous bearded ladies of the circus sideshows of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Barnum's Josephine Clofullia and Ringling Bros.' Jane Barnell, whose anomalies were celebrated. Sometimes circus and carnival freak shows presented bearded ladies who were actually women with facial hairpieces or bearded men dressed as women, both practices being lampooned by comedian and former circus performer W. C. Fields in the 1939 film, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.

Ethal Darling, Kathy Bates's character in American Horror StoryLettie Lutz, Keala Settle's character in The Greatest Showman A fascination with Wilgefortis grips the narrator of Fifth Business, the 40th best novel of the 20th century according to the Modern Library's readers' list. In the fictional country of Elbonia from the Dilbert'' comic strip, both men and women have beards and look identical.