Ep 13 – LGBTQ+ Beards, The Bearded Lady, Taxes, and the Civil War

Today’s episode looks at how beards have served very different purposes across time and identity—sometimes practical, sometimes political, sometimes deeply personal. 

It’s about what’s underneath the beard, and what it means when the world decides who’s allowed to wear one.

We start with the term “beard” in LGBTQ+ culture, where it’s used to describe someone who helps another person appear straight. It’s a quiet survival strategy with a complicated emotional impact, and it’s a part of queer history that often goes unspoken.

We spend time with one of the most iconic female bearded figures in European history: The Bearded Lady, Clementine Delait. A French café owner who chose to grow out her beard and lean into it, and made a life and name for herself on her own terms at a time when bearded women were expected to hide.

Then we take a step back into the 18th century and look at Russia’s beard tax. Peter the Great’s attempt to force Western-style progress by literally shaving tradition off men’s faces. 

From there, we head to the American Civil War, when facial hair became a kind of unofficial uniform. Beards in that era carried meaning—discipline, authority, masculinity—all grown out on the battlefield.