erg\u00e4nzendes Videostatement mit dokumentierender Einordnung <\/a><\/strong>wurde separat ver\u00f6ffentlicht und ist hier abrufbar.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nFor months now, people have been fixating on a single detail: my beard. And suddenly that\u2019s supposed to be enough to call everything into question. My identity. My gender. My entire life. As if a beard were an official stamp. As if a bit of body hair could decide whether someone is \u201creally\u201d a woman or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So now I\u2019m doing something I never actually wanted to do: I\u2019m putting it on the table. Plain and simple. Black on white. Image by image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This photo is from 1977 \u2014 from an old family album. School enrollment. Four generations of women in my family. No story, no filter, no internet, nothing \u201cartificially generated.\u201d A real photo from a real life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can see my mother, my grandmother, and even my great-grandmother \u2014 the woman with the hat. And me as a child in front of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yes: it was already visible back then. It was already an issue back then. Not because I \u201cwanted to be different,\u201d but because it simply was that way. Because some women have body hair. Because some women develop facial hair. And because people prefer to elevate themselves above others rather than simply accept that nature doesn\u2019t fit into their boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my family, this wasn\u2019t just considered \u201cunusual,\u201d but a stigma passed down across generations. In her time, my great-grandmother was even forced to appear in so-called curiosity and ethnological shows \u2014 as a \u201cwoman with a beard.\u201d For a few pennies. For the amusement of others. And anyone who believes that was a harmless circus gag hasn\u2019t understood what it means when a person is turned into an attraction simply because their body doesn\u2019t fit the image the crowd expects. That wasn\u2019t funny. It wasn\u2019t voluntary. It was humiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that very humiliation hangs over a family like a shadow. My mother later even pressured me, before my Jugendweihe, to shave off the beard. Not because she hated me \u2014 but because she was afraid. Because she knew how people are. Because she knew how merciless it gets the moment someone doesn\u2019t appear \u201cnormal.\u201d There may even still be photos of that \u2014 I\u2019ll have to look for them someday. But this memory alone already shows it: this is not about \u201cvanity.\u201d It\u2019s not about \u201cstyle.\u201d It\u2019s about pressure. About conformity. About shame imposed from the outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hid for a long time. I shaved so it wouldn\u2019t be noticeable. I made myself small so others wouldn\u2019t get upset. I even presented myself as a man at times, simply to escape that constant fixation \u2014 that look that doesn\u2019t ask how you\u2019re doing, but only: \u201cWhat are you, anyway?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s exactly the core of it: this issue is not superficial. It is psychologically burdensome. It is constant stigmatization. It is a permanent \u201cyou are wrong.\u201d And it\u2019s frightening how many people in 2026 still believe they can determine a person\u2019s gender by a beard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A beard is not proof of anything \u2014 except that a body grows hair. Period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And while people in Central Europe often act as if this were some absolute exception, a look at the world shows the opposite: women with stronger body hair exist everywhere. Depending on background, genetics, hormonal balance, age, or simple predisposition. And in some regions of the world, this isn\u2019t even a topic. There, women with beards aren\u2019t mocked \u2014 it\u2019s more likely considered normal, a sign of maturity or strength, and sometimes the situation is even reversed: it\u2019s more unusual when a woman has no visible body hair at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem isn\u2019t on the face. The problem is in the mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not making this post to get pity. I\u2019m also not making it to \u201cjustify\u201d myself. I\u2019m making it as clarification. As a boundary. As evidence. Because the hostility I now experience \u2014 even from authorities, institutions, and supposedly \u201cserious circles\u201d \u2014 has become so blatant that I will no longer stay silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So if anyone in the future thinks they can use my beard as an \u201cargument\u201d against my identity, this is what I say: the photo is from 1977. And it is real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am a woman. I was one as a child. I am one today. And I will no longer apologize for existing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
#WomanWithABeard #Family #FreeMarla<\/p>\n\n\n\n