Looking for historical intersex people naturally lead me to dig into bearded women, which lead me to the story of Clémentine Delait, a woman who had... quite the life, I must say!

Born in 1865 in France, Clémentine held "le Café de la Femme à Barbe" (litt: the café of the bearded lady) and was quite famous for... well, having an impressive beard. Hotlinking this image from wikipedia so sorry if the link breaks, but seriously look at her!

I sadly could not get my hands on her memoires, so I have to rely on unrelated podcasts reading excerpts out loud as a source. But the story seems to be that she once went to freakshow, which boasted of having a "bearded lady," which Clémentine described as "a poor woman who was given an ugly dress and didn't even have hair circling the whole face." She told that story to one of the café reulars, who bet her 500 francs (adjusted to inflation: about 5000 euros, or 5440 usd) that she'd let her beard grow. Clémentine never got the money from the bet, but she completly stopped shaving after this regardless.

Her beard made her quite famous. She credits it as having attracted many clients from all across the country. She also sold signed postcards made with photographies of her. I figure it worked quite well, since she supposedly wrote that the money allowed her to take care of her sickly husband and adopted daughter.

When she died, in 1939, the village that hosted her café (Thaon-les-Vosges) opened a museum in her name. As far as I'm aware, that museum is sadly closed by now, but it's still a very nice gesture.

So, why am I telling you about this? Well first of all, because she's cool and you guys should look her up (there is a lot I didn't cover here), second of all because it's always nice to see that intersex people have always existed. But mostly, I'm telling you this because I need you to know that Clémentine, who was born in the 19th century, was loved. There are recordings of that time they opened a museum about her, where her daughter and lots of former clients attested that she was beloved by her village.

Being intersex, or being gender non-comforming, or being a masculine woman with lots of hair, is not a death sentence. It's not a curse. You can have a happy ending. Clémentine did, an entire century ago. It's okay. You're gonna be okay.