Bearded lady

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A bearded lady or bearded woman is a woman who has a visible beard. These women have long been a phenomenon of legend, curiosity, ridicule, and more recently, political statement and fashion statement.

A small number of women are able to grow enough facial hair to have a beard. Cultural pressure leads most to remove it, as it may be viewed as a social stigma. Notable exceptions were the famous (and usually fake) bearded women of the circus sideshows of the 19th and early 20th centuries, before so-called freak shows became unpopular.

Jusepe de Ribera painted Magdalena Ventura in 1631 for the duke of Alcalá, viceroy of Naples. She came from the Abruzzi region. She had started growing a beard when she was 37. She was 52 at the time of the painting, so the baby she is suckling is an artistic licence.

The current Guinness World Record holder is Vivian Wheeler; in 2000, her beard was 11 inches or 27.9 centimeters long.

Some contemporary feminist women, wishing to question the boundaries of social norms, have not removed visible facial hair as a political statement. Notable examples include artist Frida Kahlo and professor Jennifer Miller.

In some cases, female beard growth is the result of a hormonal imbalance (usually androgen excess), or a rare genetic disorder known as hypertrichosis.

[edit] In fiction

In the chapters 40 and 41 of the second part of Don Quixote, the Dueña Dolorida and other ladies wear fake beards. They tell Don Quixote that the beards are the result of an evil charmer, and the knight has to ride Clavileño to the skies to undo the charm.

In Monty Python's Life of Brian, some Jewish women wear fake beards to pass for men and stone a blasphemer who had pronounced the name of Jehovah. One of these is Brian's mother, who yells "He's not the messiah!"

Women in the fictional country of Elbonia from Scott Adams' comic strip Dilbert have beards.

The female dwarves in fantasy fiction are often depicted as having beards; examples include dwarves of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle earth, and dwarfs of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

The Kids in the Hall featured an Irish bearded lady as the best friend of Chicken Lady, a popular recurring character on the series.

The HBO series Carnivale featured a bearded lady as a performer in the carnival.

In William Shakespeare's MacBeth, the Weird Sisters have beards, among other strange facial attributes.

On an episode of My Name Is Earl, Judy Greer plays a woman who has grown a beard and joins the circus.

The first book in the series Utvandrarna features a woman with considerable facial hair, Brita-Stafva, mistress at Hæstebæck and of Robert Axel Nilsson, brother of the main character.

In the movie SpaceBalls the antagonist Dark Helmet's escape pod is stolen by a bearded lady.

Linda Medley's comic Castle Waiting includes a sub-plot about an order of bearded nuns.