#bearded lady
Barnum & Bailey / Exhibition d'Hommes & Femme Phenomenes. Anonymous.
36 ¾ x 29 in./93.4 x 73.5 cm
Barnum & Bailey / Exhibition d'Hommes & Femme Phenomenes. .
That is not Chewbacca at left. That’s Jo-Jo, the Russian Poodle Man, and this is Barnum & Bailey’s Sideshow arriving in France. This original Strobridge design was translated and printed in Paris (a French tax stamp is at upper left), delivering une piquant je ne sais quoi to Little Peter the Great; John MacDonald, the Human Mastodon; Koguri, the Japanese Artist Without Arms; miniature Queen Mab; and some 30 other prodigies of nature. Magnifique!
Available at auction February 25, 2018.
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Today’s piece of non-gender conforming art history comes to us from Mali and is by a Dogon artist. Intersex figures such as this one are commonly depicted in Dogon art. In this scene, we see a figure with a beard, breasts, and what appears to be a penis hanging over labia and a vagina standing with puckered lips which, to Western eyes, would appear to be blowing a kiss or whistling a jaunty tune.
REFERENCE / FURTHER READING
WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE: “Dogon People”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogon_people
WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE: “Intersex in History”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex_in_history
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