The "Case of a Bearded Woman": Hypertrichosis and the Construction of Gender in the Age of Darwin

Abstract

This essay analyzes the late-nineteenth-century epidemic of hypertrichosis, the disease of "superfluous hair," in the context of the U.S. reception of evolutionary theory. Between 1877 and 1920 scores of dermatologists reported at conferences and in medical journals that their female patients were traumatized by excessive facial and body hair. At the same time, the public flocked to see bearded ladies on display at circus sideshows. To make sense of hirsute women, specialists and popular observers alike often invoked evolutionary theory, especially Charles Darwin's theory of sexual selection as explained in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). Studying the medical and popular fascination with female hirsutism sheds light on the understudied role that gender has played in the U.S. reception of evolutionary theory, reveals how the cultural norm of female hairlessness became naturalized, and helps us better understand the ongoing construction of gender, a highly racialized category.

Hair, Hormones, and Haunting: Race as a Ghost Variable in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

“…Social-historical scholars have identified hair as a powerful marker of both gender and racial difference. Body and facial hair have been conceptualized as essentially masculine traits and a source of stigma that signals “excess” for women (Hamlin 2011; Synnott 1987; Toerien and Wilkinson 2003). Hair color, texture, and density are lasting targets of racial preoccupation, used to construct racial phenotypes throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Morning 2011).…”

“…For example, turn of the century dermatologists’ fixation with bearded women and women with “superfluous” hair manifested very differently along racial lines. When considering white women, discourse centered on femininity and the boundary between male and female; when considering women of color, the conversation shifted to atavism and the boundary between human and animal (Hamlin 2011).…”