A very moving film doing the rounds in cinemas since the beginning of June is ‘Rosalie’ directed by Stéphanie di Giusto which was nominated for the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival back in 2023. Based loosely on a compendium of true historical cases the film explores the reaction of a small 19th century French community to an outsider, Rosalie, (played admirably by Nadia Tereszkiewicz), who arrives to marry Abel (played by Benoît Magimel) the proprietor of the village café; she on the insistence of her father, who is ashamed of her, and he to clear his debts with the dowery which she brings.
It transpires, however, that Rosalie has hirsutism which is the presence of course hairs on her body, and most obviously on her face, which she shaves to hide her condition. She struggles to cope with her fear of being found out for having facial hair but cannot hide her bodily hair from Abel whose reaction initially is that of disgust.
She has a beautiful personality and without excess hair would be considered to have a beautiful face and body by any measure, but then there is the rub: what is beauty? Rosalie allows her true self to be revealed when she lets her beard grow in defiance of the conventions of how a woman is supposed to look. The local community react unpleasantly because they are upset by the unconventional, but then come to accept her for who she really is. The film sends a powerful message of feminist empowerment but also a general statement about how outsiders are treated.
It is estimated that between 5 – 10% of women today have hirsutism, which is caused by disorders in ovarian function and peripheral androgen activity in a woman’s body. Hirsutism usually presents itself to differing degrees and most women usually remove unwanted hair by different epilation methods, such as plucking, shaving, and waxing. Though simple and inexpensive, these methods are temporary and have their own side effects like physical discomfort, scarring, folliculitis, irritant dermatitis or discoloration.
Electrolysis is also used for hair removal and with repeated treatments the efficacy ranges from 15 to 50% for permanent hair removal, however, it is difficult to treat large areas like hairs on the chest or upper back and it can be time consuming. For pharmacological therapy, oral contraceptives as oestrogen/progesterone combinations are commonly used successfully and recommended for most women.
Hirsutism has been recognised throughout history. As early as the 4th century BC a bearded woman, Phaethousa of Abdera, was mentioned in one of Hippocrates treatises with an explanation of her condition as her menstrual blood being turned into hair! The most famous bearded woman was Wilgefortis who became a saintly icon and whose feast day is on the 20th of July.
According to legend Wilgefortis was a beautiful teenage Christian noble woman, daughter of the king of Portugal who had been promised by her father to marry the pagan King of Sicily. To avoid marrying, she prayed that she would become repulsive to her betrothed and he would refuse her hand in marriage. In answer to these prayers, she woke the next morning with a beard which indeed repulsed the pagan King, and he ended the engagement. Her father was so angry that she had used this ruse to avoid his plans, he had her crucified.
Wilgefortis is believed to originate from the Latin “virgo fortis” (“courageous virgin”) although her name appears in different versions throughout the world. While venerated by some Catholics she was never formally canonised by the Church (she was even removed from the official list of saints in 1969). Instead, she was a popular intercessor, one to be prayed to by women who wished to be liberated from abusive husbands. She was feted in the late Middle Ages as the patron saint of unhappy relationships – women would pray to her for solace in their unhappy marriages and from physical relief of their bullying husbands.
St Wilgefortis was so popular in the 15th C that a carving of her image was commissioned and placed in Henry VII’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and she has been represented in other forms of art throughout Europe, such as in the painting “The martyrdom of Saint Wilgefortis” by Hieronymus Bosch in 1497 and the 18th C carving of “Saint Wilgefortis” in the museum of the Diocese Graz-Seckau, Graz, Austria.
St. Wilgefortis remains an inspirational and intriguing figure particularly for women and the LGBQ+ community today because this icon has been seen as a symbol of gender fluidity. Although there was nothing to suggest that Wilgefortis was anyone other than a biologically woman, and neither trans or queer, her condition of hirsutism subverts society’s gender expectations, and her legend disrupts ideas of binary gender.
Wilgefortis trusted in God and her determination to reject the unwanted suitor were inspiring and this has resonance today in women’s determination to resist misogyny and prejudice. Her story, as that of Rosalie, is of a woman’s courage and strength determination and tenacity to follow her own choices in life and not that of others.
Credit 18th C wood carving of “Saint Wilgefortis” in the museum of the Diocese Graz-Seckau
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