1. by Ilsa Shaw | illustration by Jamie Douglas
To my knowledge, I have always been female. out to nd an anabolic steroid that would the perception of those employed by the circus.
So you can imagine my surprise three weeks minimize the negative androgenic effects Nowadays, freak shows are banned in a
ago when a mirror’s re ection revealed a associated with other steroids. What he number of US states and their number has
long, thick, and dark single hair sprouting stumbled upon was methandrostenolone, greatly decreased, but the eerie fascination
from the middle of my chin. I ddled with it which was soon marketed as Dianabol to call women with facial hair “strange”
for a bit, thinking, “How the hell did this get and sold to countless numbers of body still remains. Perhaps the most popular
here? Is it a case of too many bread crusts?” builders, including Governor Arnold bearded woman of our time is Jennifer
It seems that this was just the follicle of a Schwarzenegger and Sergio Oliva. Miller, a professor at the Pratt Institute in
new occupation: that of a bearded lady. It once even doubled as the “One A Day” Brooklyn, New York. Miller founded and
I was either lucky or unlucky for growing tonic tablet for women, particularly during participates in Circus Amok, a politically-
this bud of a beard on my own. In the times the 1960s, until beards started sprouting driven circus whose performances
when freak shows were popular (the 19th to and once-womanly voices began to deepen. address such issues as gentri cation,
mid-20th century), most bearded ladies were Methandrostenolone was legal until the 1990s, health care, gay marriage, police brutality,
simply ordinary women with fur plastered when the customarily slow FDA nally put public education, and gender identity.
onto their chins. There are various incidents their foot down. Doctor Ziegler later turned Before her 30s, Miller had grown a full beard,
where carnival crowds got out of hand and against his discovery by saying, “I wish to about which she says, “A doctor told me I had
exposed the bearded lady — and, on occasion, God now I’d never done it. I’d like to go back high progesterone.” Nevertheless, she refused
the entire carnival — to be a fraud. At the time, and take that whole chapter out of my life.” to remove it, and has since distinguished
there was no de nitive method to stimulate As anyone who has ever watched The Elephant herself as “a woman with a beard, not ‘the
hair growth in women. Usually, the most Man knows, freak shows were a major moral bearded lady.’ ” Miller has made a name for
authentic bearded ladies had either a rare ill of the time. A person that performed herself as the gurehead of the Circus Amok
medical condition like hypertrichosis, which in a freak show was just that: a freak and show, and you can’t help but think that she
is also known as werewolf syndrome, or facial nothing more. Such is the case with Miss has a better grasp on some of the social issues
hair follicles that were sensitive to androgens Annie Jones, who, by the age of five, had she’s tackling as a genuinely bearded female.
(the type of hormones that stimulate grown a full-fledged beard that only Miller notes that freak shows were “other
masculine characteristics in vertebrates). a lumberjack could envy. Although the ways of looking that weren’t traditional,
Perhaps the most well-known androgen is reasons for her beard growth are unknown, white, and Protestant; [they] were another
testosterone. Although all women’s bodies it has been speculated that it was due to way to allow people to feel superior, less
contain and utilize the hormone, excessive hirsutism, excessive hair growth in women existentially lost.” It is a natural impulse for a
amounts over a period of months or years that is a symptom of an entirely different person to look at something and immediately
can render them bearded with acne, a deeper medical disorder. She was quickly noticed demand categorization. So when Miller
voice, and a longer clitoris. In 1935, a group of by American showman P.T. Barnum, who walks by with her thin arms, feminine gure,
scientists at the University of Amsterdam rst signed her on to the Barnum Circus troupe and hairy chin, one just isn’t sure what to
identi ed testosterone. Shortly afterward, a with a hefty promise of $150 per week. make of her. By bending the boundaries of
patent application was led and the steroid Photographs of Jones were widely distributed what is de ned as gender and calling for
hormone became infamous. Stories of British and she soon became the “must-see freak” both political and social change, her beard
neurologist Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard of the show. Many people developed an has rendered her an honest victim; she is a
resurfaced as common chitchat. 46 years eerie, inhuman fascination with the idea of woman still perceived as a “freak,” but ghting
prior to this discovery, he had injected a bearded lady. Jones was soon kidnapped for change just as Miss Jones once did.
himself with an extract of dog and guinea by a phrenologist and was eventually Miller is comfortable with her beard. She
pig testicles — only to feel much more elated found being shown at a church fair. has never looked towards hair removal
and invigorated. During World War II, other Although the whole affair was likely a hoax treatments of any kind. “I don’t think of
steroids were also used to experiment on put on to generate attention for the circus, it as a problem, so I’m not looking for a
concentration camp inmates and prisoners Jones could not escape being a shaggy publicity cause,” says Miller. Even so, it was time for
of war so as to test their effects on chronic stunt. She became America’s top bearded lady my personal beard experience to come to
wasting. Even Adolf Hitler was injected with and is said to have toured through Russia, a halt. With a pair of tweezers in hand and
testosterone derivatives, according to his where she turned down the chance to pose as my eyes set on the target, the chin hair
physician, to combat various ailments. Jesus for several painters. In her adulthood, was dredged from my skin. No hairs have
About 20 years later, an American scientist she tried ardently to eliminate the word “freak” sprouted since, and the outlook is bleak for my
by the name of Doctor John Ziegler sought from common language and spoke out against alternative career path as a bearded lady. •
18 Section | 01.09.09 19